How to get the TitledBorder's title to display properly in the GUI

Question

I have the GUI displaying properly for the most part, except for one thing. The TitledBorder("Numeric Type") does not display the entire title for the right JPanel. I believe it has something to do with the BorderLayout Manager. Instead of displaying "Numeric Type" within the border, just "Numeric..." displays. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

public class P3GUI extends JFrame {

    private JLabel originalList;
    private JTextField originalSort;
    private JLabel sortedList;
    private JTextField newSort;
    private JPanel panel;
    private JButton performSort;
    private JRadioButton ascending;
    private JRadioButton descending;
    private ButtonGroup sort;
    private JRadioButton integer;
    private JRadioButton fraction;
    private ButtonGroup numType;
    private JPanel inputPanel, outputPanel, calculatePanel, radioPanel;
    private JPanel left, right;

    public P3GUI () {
        super("Binary Search Tree Sort");
        setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        originalList = new JLabel("Original List");
        originalSort = new JTextField(20);        
        inputPanel = new JPanel();
        inputPanel.add(originalList);
        inputPanel.add(originalSort);
        sortedList = new JLabel("Sorted List");
        newSort = new JTextField(20);
        newSort.setEditable(false);
        outputPanel = new JPanel();
        outputPanel.add(sortedList);
        outputPanel.add(newSort);
        panel = new JPanel();
        panel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
        panel.add(inputPanel);
        panel.add(outputPanel);
        add(panel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
        performSort = new JButton("Perform Sort");
        calculatePanel = new JPanel();
        calculatePanel.add(performSort);
        add(calculatePanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);        
        ascending = new JRadioButton("Ascending");
        descending = new JRadioButton("Descending");
        sort = new ButtonGroup();
        sort.add(ascending);
        sort.add(descending);
        integer = new JRadioButton("Integer");
        fraction = new JRadioButton("Fraction");
        numType = new ButtonGroup();
        numType.add(integer);
        numType.add(fraction);
        radioPanel = new JPanel();
        radioPanel.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
        left = new JPanel();
        left.setLayout(new GridLayout(2,1));
        left.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Sort Order"));
        left.add(ascending);
        left.add(descending);
        right = new JPanel();
        right.setLayout(new GridLayout(2,1));
        right.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Numeric Type"));
        right.add(integer);
        right.add(fraction);
        radioPanel.add(left);
        radioPanel.add(right);
        add(radioPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);        
        pack();

    }
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                new P3GUI().setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }

}

Answer 1

The preferred size of the panel (as determined by the layout manager) does not consider the size of the text in the TitledBorder so the title can get truncated.

Here is a custom JPanel that can be used with a TitleBorder. The getPreferredSize() method has been customized to use the maximum width of:

1. the default getPreferredSize() calculation
2. the width of the text in the TitledBorder

Here is a simple example:

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;

public class TitledBorderPanel extends JPanel
{
    /**
     ** The preferred width on the panel must consider the width of the text
     ** used on the TitledBorder
     */
    @Override
    public Dimension getPreferredSize()
    {
        Dimension preferredSize = super.getPreferredSize();

        Border border = getBorder();
        int borderWidth = 0;

        if (border instanceof TitledBorder)
        {
            Insets insets = getInsets();
            TitledBorder titledBorder = (TitledBorder)border;
            borderWidth = titledBorder.getMinimumSize(this).width + insets.left + insets.right;
        }

        int preferredWidth = Math.max(preferredSize.width, borderWidth);

        return new Dimension(preferredWidth, preferredSize.height);
    }

    private static void createAndShowGUI()
    {
        JPanel panel = new TitledBorderPanel();
        panel.setBorder( BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("File Options Command List:") );
        panel.setLayout( new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS) );
        panel.add( new JLabel("Open") );
        panel.add( new JLabel("Close") );
//      panel.add( new JLabel("A really wierd file option longer than border title") );

        JFrame frame = new JFrame("TitledBorderPanel");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.add( panel );
        frame.setLocationByPlatform( true );
        frame.pack();
        frame.setVisible( true );
    }

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        EventQueue.invokeLater( () -> createAndShowGUI() );
/*
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable()
        {
            public void run()
            {
                createAndShowGUI();
            }
        });
*/
    }
}

Answer 2

The problem is that the right JPanel is too small to display the entire title, and so it gets truncated. I'd suggest placing the bottom two JPanels into another that uses GridLayout, and then place them in such a way that they expand to fit the bottom of your GUI. When spread out, the title has a much greater chance of being fully displayed (but not a guarantee, mind you!).

For example, if you make the main GUI use a BorderLayout, and add this GridLayout using JPanel into the BorderLayout.CENTER position, it will fill it completely. Then the top components, the TextFields and JButton can be added to another JPanel, say one that uses a GridBagLayout, and add that to the main JPanel's BorderLayout.PAGE_START position.

For example, the following code produces this GUI:

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.GridBagConstraints;
import java.awt.GridBagLayout;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.Insets;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import javax.swing.*;

@SuppressWarnings("serial")
public class P3GUI2 extends JPanel {
    private static final int COLS = 20;
    private JTextField originalSort = new JTextField(COLS);
    private JTextField newSort = new JTextField(COLS);
    private JButton performSort = new JButton("Perform Sort");
    private JRadioButton ascending = new JRadioButton("Ascending");
    private JRadioButton descending = new JRadioButton("Descending");
    private ButtonGroup sort = new ButtonGroup();
    private JRadioButton integer = new JRadioButton("Integer");
    private JRadioButton fraction = new JRadioButton("Fraction");
    private ButtonGroup numType = new ButtonGroup();

    public P3GUI2() {
        JPanel topPanel = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout());
        topPanel.add(new JLabel("Original List:"), createGbc(0, 0));
        topPanel.add(originalSort, createGbc(1, 0));
        topPanel.add(new JLabel("Sorted List:"), createGbc(0, 1));
        topPanel.add(newSort, createGbc(1, 1));

        performSort.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_P);
        JPanel btnPanel = new JPanel();
        btnPanel.add(performSort);

        JPanel sortOrderPanel = createTitlePanel("Sort Order");
        JPanel numericPanel = createTitlePanel("Numeric Type");

        sortOrderPanel.add(ascending);
        sortOrderPanel.add(descending);
        sort.add(ascending);
        sort.add(descending);

        numericPanel.add(integer);
        numericPanel.add(fraction);
        numType.add(integer);
        numType.add(fraction);

        JPanel radioPanels = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1, 0, 3, 3));
        radioPanels.add(sortOrderPanel);
        radioPanels.add(numericPanel);        

        setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(3, 3, 3, 3));
        setLayout(new BorderLayout(3, 3));
        add(topPanel, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
        add(btnPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        add(radioPanels, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
    }

    private JPanel createTitlePanel(String title) {
        JPanel panel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0, 1, 3, 3));
        panel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(title));
        return panel;
    }

    private GridBagConstraints createGbc(int x, int y) {
        GridBagConstraints gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
        gbc.gridx = x;
        gbc.gridy = y;
        gbc.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        gbc.anchor = x == 0 ? GridBagConstraints.WEST : GridBagConstraints.EAST;
        gbc.insets = new Insets(3, 3, 3, 3);
        gbc.weightx = 1.0;
        gbc.weighty = 1.0;
        return gbc;
    }

    private static void createAndShowGui() {
        P3GUI2 mainPanel = new P3GUI2();

        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Binary Search Tree Sort");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.getContentPane().add(mainPanel);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(() -> createAndShowGui());
    }
}

Or you could place the above btnPanel into the main one BorderLayout.CENTER and then place the radioPanels into the main one BorderLayout.PAGE_END. This will display a GUI of the same appearance but it will expand differently if re-sized.