We Keep Coding

Trouble spacing in JFrame

I am new to Java, what I am trying to do is generate a GUI with a bunch of images I have managed to generate a bunch of images, however, they have unnecessary space between them horizontally, is there any way that I can get rid of this currently I am generating them like so?
setLayout(new FlowLayout());
int numberOfTabs = 4;// number of times image is shown
for(int i = 0; i<numberOfTabs;i++) {
add(
new JLabel(new ImageIcon(getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("Path to image"))));
//creates a new image anonymous object and adds it to the jframe
}
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setTitle("Sheetssss");
pack();
setVisible(true);
//also in this context this = a Jframe object so all these methods can be called without an object reference
is there some other method that I can call so that the horizontal spacing can be set to 0?
As shown in the image below there is space between the images, the 2 vertical black lines between images should be overlapping
Thanks

You just need to change
setLayout(new FlowLayout())
to
setLayout(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT,0,0));

Change JTextField height on Swing

I'm trying to fix the height of the "amountField" text field, but I can't.
I would like the height of amountField to have the same height as the JComboBox that it's above, so it looks better.
Right now, the JTextField looks very tall compared with the rest of design.
I've tried everything that I've read in this forum, but nothing seems to work.
I don't know if it's relevant, but this whole JPanel (WithdrawalScreen) is inside another JPanel with BorderLayout. This panel is the center part of it
Thanks
PictureHere
public class WithdrawalScreen extends JPanel {
Public JPanel init() {
this.setLayout(new GridLayout(0,1));
account = new JLabel("account");
accountSelect = new JComboBox(labels);
amount = new JLabel("amount");
amountField = new JTextField("");
submit = new JButton("SUBMIT");
this.add(account);
this.add(accountSelect);
this.add(amount);
this.add(amountField);
this.add(submit);
return this;
}
}

Try creating the Grid Layout with 5 rows and 1 column. I think the height is messed up because you are not setting the constructor arguments properly.
new GridLayout(5,1);

Grid layout will stretch the component and give the same size to all of its components. In order to keep the "default" size of each component, you can use BoxLayout with BoxLayout.Y_AXIS parameter in its constructor. Another way would be to use a dummy-nested JPanel with another layout. Let's say FlowLayout.
JTextField textField = new JTextField(10);
JPanel nestedPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout());
nestedPanel.add(textField);
gridLayoutPanel.add(nestedPanel);
JTextField will not be stretched. nestedPanel will be. Do some experiments yourself and you will find the way that fits your needs.
A link that will help you: A visoual guide to Layout Managers.

Put panel and text box in the same frame

How do i put Jlabel and Jtext in the same frame?
if i add the text last, then only the text are showen, thes is my code:
public MatrixFrame(String framname, int width, int height) {
width =7;
height = 6;
JFrame fram = new JFrame(framname);
fram.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
fram.setSize(500,500);
JTextArea text = new JTextArea("Here come Text");
valMatrixPanel = new ValMatrixPanel(height,width,Color.GRAY, Color.black);
JPanel pan = valMatrixPanel.getPan(); // pan is 6*7 panels lock the picture
fram.add(pan);
fram.add(text);
fram.setVisible(true);
}
}

The key to solving this is your understanding how to use layout managers, because this is how Swing decides where to put what and how to size things. First off for a quick easy fix, put all your components into a JPanel, which uses a FlowLayout by default, and then add the JPanel to your JFrame. Don't set the JPanel's or the JFrame's size, do call pack() on the JFrame after adding everything and then finally call setVisible(true).
The better long term answer: read the layout manager tutorials which you can find, among the other Swing tutorials: here.

Try this
you will have to add a import for grid layout
check that
all you need to do is add a grid layout because the textbox overlaps the panel.
so add the line
fame.getContentPane().setLayout(new GridLayout(1,1));
JPanel pan = valMatrixPanel.getPan(); // pan is 6*7 panels lock the picture
fame.getContentPane().setLayout(new GridLayout(1,1));
fram.add(pan);
fram.add(text);
fram.setVisible(true);

use BorderLayout in fram.add()
like this
public MatrixFrame(String framname, int width, int height) {
width =7;
height = 6;
JFrame fram = new JFrame(framname);
fram.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
fram.setSize(500,500);
JTextArea text = new JTextArea("Here come Text");
valMatrixPanel = new ValMatrixPanel(height,width,Color.GRAY, Color.black);
JPanel pan = valMatrixPanel.getPan(); // pan is 6*7 panels lock the picture
fram.add(pan,BorderLayout.WEST);
fram.add(text,BorderLayout.NORTH);
fram.setVisible(true);
}

Java: How to nest JPanel in a GridLayout?

I want to know how to nest JPanels using a GridLayout. This is how it should look like.
I approached this problem by 2 ways so far,
using JPanels and
using JLabels,
and none of them worked (only the first panel created is shown).
Here is the code for the JPanel approach:
int x=20, y=20;
JPanel [] panels = new JPanel[3];
JLabel animal = new JLabel(new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("Pictures/animal.gif")));
JLabel map = new JLabel(new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("Pictures/map.gif")));
JLabel mountain = new JLabel(new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("Pictures/mountain.gif")));
for(int i=0;i<panels.length;i++)
{
if(i>0)
{
x+=x;
y+=y;
}
panels[i] = new JPanel(new GridLayout(2,2));
panels[i].setPreferredSize(new Dimension(x,y));
if(i==0)
panels[i].add(new JPanel());
else
panels[i].add(panels[i-1]);
panels[i].add(mountain);
panels[i].add(map);
panels[i].add(animal);
}
add(panels[2]);

One option is to create a class that will represent a panel divided into the grid with the images. The only issue would be the top left quadrant which would usually contain the nested panel, at some point you want this to contain just a blank panel. So maybe something like this (barring various optimizations):
class GridPanel extends JPanel{
JLabel mountain, map, animal;
public GridPanel(JPanel panel){
super();
setLayout(new GridLayout(2, 2));
animal = new JLabel(new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("pictures/animal.gif")));
map = new JLabel(new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("pictures/map.gif")));
mountain = new JLabel(new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("pictures/mountain.gif")));
add(panel);
add(mountain);
add(map);
add(animal);
}
}
Notice that it accepts the panel that is to be displayed in the top left corner of the grid. This coud then be called with the panel specified. So at the point where you want to create the main panel:
JPanel grid = new GridPanel(new JPanel()); //initial
for(int i = 1; i <= 5; i++){
grid = new GridPanel(grid);
}
add(grid);
The initial grid is created with a blank JPanel. And every subsequent grid will contain the previous one as the top left panel. You have to resize your images and such and maybe even avoid loading the images multiple times etc. But that is another question. This example shows 5 nested panels.
Just to be clear, you should use ImageIO to load the images once and reuse the images. For example You can create a BufferedImage like this in your main class:
BufferedImage mointainImg = ImageIO.read(new File("pictures/mountain.gif"));
And when you want to create the JLabel you can do this:
mountain = new JLabel(new ImageIcon(mountainImg));
And the advantage is that you can manipulate the image a bit if you want.

One issue that you have is that the images are not scaled. To scale images, use Image.getScaledInstance(). Proper scaling would at least fix the problem of the visible images being cut off. It also might cause the other images to be shown as they might just be hiding behind the visible images because they are too big.

Java Swing - JPanel and GridLayout Margins/Padding

I'm working on building a chess game in Java, and I'm currently having a bit of trouble getting the GUI exactly the way I want it with Swing. I'm using a GridLayout to organize a grid of 8x8 ChessButtons (which override the JButton so that I can store extra information inside of them such as coordinates). Originally, the ChessButtons wouldn't appear unless I moused over them, but I solved that problem by placing each ChessButton inside a separate JPanel and setting each button's setPreferredSize() to a set height and width.
Now, my problem is that there seems to be a small margin or padding above (and/or below?) each button. I've made sure to set setHgap(0) and setVgap(0) for the GridLayout, so I'm pretty sure the mysterious margin is coming from either the buttons or the JPanels. But, I can't seem to get rid of them, and they seem to be causing each ChessButton to shift a little bit up/down whenever I mouse of them.
I realize this description of the problem might be a little hard to visualize, so I've taken a screenshot (using JButtons rather than ChessButtons so the gaps are slightly easier to recognize): http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/6656/jbuttonmargins.png
Here is the code I used to initialize each ChessButton:
chessBoard = new JPanel(new GridLayout(8, 8, 0, 0));
chessBoard.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder());
for (int i = 0; i <= 65; i++) {
//Create a new ChessButton
ChessButton button = new ChessButton("hi");
button.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder());
button.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(75, 75));
button.setMargin(new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0));
//Create a new JPanel that the ChessButton will go into
JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel();
buttonPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(75, 75));
buttonPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder());
buttonPanel.add(button);
//Add the buttonPanel to the grid
chessBoard.add(buttonPanel);
}
So, how can I get rid of these vertical spaces between buttons? I'm relatively new to Swing, so I'm sorry if the answer is extremely obvious, but I'd appreciate any help anyone might have to offer! Thanks in advance!

Don't add an empty border; do use setBorderPainted(false).
Addendum: As #camickr notes, the panel's layout may include default gaps. The example below uses no-gap GridLayout accordingly.
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
/** #see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4331699 */
public class ButtonBorder extends JPanel {
private static final int N = 8;
private static final int SIZE = 75;
public ButtonBorder() {
super(new GridLayout(N, N));
this.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(N * SIZE, N * SIZE));
for (int i = 0; i < N * N; i++) {
this.add(new ChessButton(i));
}
}
private static class ChessButton extends JButton {
public ChessButton(int i) {
super(i / N + "," + i % N);
this.setOpaque(true);
this.setBorderPainted(false);
if ((i / N + i % N) % 2 == 1) {
this.setBackground(Color.gray);
}
}
}
private void display() {
JFrame f = new JFrame("ButtonBorder");
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
f.add(this);
f.pack();
f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
f.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
new ButtonBorder().display();
}
});
}
}

Originally, the ChessButtons wouldn't appear unless I moused over them, but I solved that problem by placing each ChessButton inside a separate JPanel and setting each button's setPreferredSize() to a set height and width
That is not the proper solution. There is no reason to use a JPanel to hold the buttons. In fact, this is probably the cause of the problem. The buttons should show up when you add them to a GridLayout. If they don't show up its probably because you added the buttons to the GUI after making the GUI visible. Components should be added to the GUI BEFORE it is made visible.
Now, my problem is that there seems to be a small margin or padding above (and/or below?) each button
I don't understand why there also isn't a horizontal gap. When you create a JPanel, by default it uses a FlowLayout which also contains a horizontal/vertical gap of 5 pixels. So I understand why you might have the vertical gap of 10 pixels. I don't understand why there is no horizontal gap.
If you need more help post your SSCCE demonstrating the problem. And the SSCCE should use regular JButtons. Get the basics working with standard components before you start playing with custom components. That way you know if the problem is with your custom code or not.

Try adding chessBoard.setPreferredSize(600, 600) to create a JPanel for the board that only has room to fit the buttons (8 buttons each way * 75 size each way on the buttons).