Question

To define minimal size successfully, I have to do the following:

// setting minimal width AND height
Dimension min = new Dimension(100, 100);
comp.setMinimumSize(min);
comp.setPreferredSize(min);
comp.setSize(min);

When I left one line out it doesn’t work, which is strange, but it’s not the point.

What do I do to limit just one of two dimensions (width or height) and let the component and/or the layout manager decide automatically about the unspecified dimension?

When I use a very small value for that dimension which I don’t want to limit, many components are displayed wrong (i.e. too small).

Answer 1

By default (i.e. if setMinimumSize has not been called on the component) getMinimumSize delegates to the component’s layout manager, so you can try to redefine the getMinimumSize method as follows:

public Dimension getMinimumSize()
{
    return new Dimension(minWidth, super.getMinimumSize().height);
}

If you do this, remember that you should not call setMinimumSize on the component.