JTextArea problems

Question

Having a bit of trouble with JTextArea, and specifically the scaling of it. Whenever I try to readjust the size of instructionsarea it really messes with all of my other components. I think this is due to some weird BorderLayout interactions, but I'm not sure. Finding a way to keep the current components while also having an instructionsarea that's a good size would be amazing.

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.GridLayout;

public class CoffeeShop extends JFrame {
  
  private JLabel coffeemenu, seasonaldrinks, instructions;
  private JPanel westpanel, westpanel2;
  private JComboBox menubox, seasonalmenubox;
  private JTextArea instructionsarea;
  
  
  public CoffeeShop(){
    
    coffeemenu = new JLabel("Coffee Menu:");
    seasonaldrinks = new JLabel("Seasonal Drinks:");
    instructions = new JLabel("List Any Special Instructions:");
    
    instructionsarea = new JTextArea(3, 1);
    
    westpanel = new JPanel();
    westpanel2 = new JPanel();
    westpanel.add(coffeemenu);
    westpanel2.add(westpanel);
    add(westpanel2, BorderLayout.WEST);
    westpanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(6,1));
    
    
    
    String menuboxoption [] = {"Choose Below:","Drip Coffee", "Cookie Butter Latte", "Caramel Latte", 
                               "Matcha Latte", "Craft Matcha", "Classic Latte", "Vanilla Latte", "Hazlenut Latte"};
    
    String seasonalmenuboxoption [] = {"Choose Below:", "Iced Pumpkin Butter Latte","Iced Autumn Spice Latte", "Crisp Apple Sparkling Cider", 
                                       "Iced Melting Monster Latte", "Hot Pumpkin Cookie Butter Latte"};
    menubox = new JComboBox(menuboxoption);
    seasonalmenubox = new JComboBox(seasonalmenuboxoption);
    westpanel.add(menubox);
    westpanel.add(seasonaldrinks);
    westpanel.add(seasonalmenubox);
    
    westpanel.add(instructions);
    westpanel.add(instructionsarea);
    
    setTitle("Commonwealth Joe's");
    setSize(900, 500);
    setVisible(true);
    setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
  }
  
  
  
  
  
  public static void main(String [] args){
    CoffeeShop run = new CoffeeShop();
    
  }
}

Answer 1

So, two things, first, always wrap your JTextArea in a JScrollPane, things will get very ... weird ... otherwise. Second, while using multiple containers is a good idea for complex layouts, in this case, I might consider just using one container and use a different layout (other then GridLayout, for example ...

Runnable example

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.GridBagConstraints;
import java.awt.GridBagLayout;
import java.awt.Insets;
import javax.swing.JComboBox;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;

public class CoffeeShop extends JFrame {

    private JLabel coffeemenu, seasonaldrinks, instructions;
    private JPanel westpanel;
    private JComboBox menubox, seasonalmenubox;
    private JTextArea instructionsarea;

    public CoffeeShop() {

        coffeemenu = new JLabel("Coffee Menu:");
        seasonaldrinks = new JLabel("Seasonal Drinks:");
        instructions = new JLabel("List Any Special Instructions:");

        instructionsarea = new JTextArea(3, 1);

        String menuboxoption[] = {"Choose Below:", "Drip Coffee", "Cookie Butter Latte", "Caramel Latte",
            "Matcha Latte", "Craft Matcha", "Classic Latte", "Vanilla Latte", "Hazlenut Latte"};

        String seasonalmenuboxoption[] = {"Choose Below:", "Iced Pumpkin Butter Latte", "Iced Autumn Spice Latte", "Crisp Apple Sparkling Cider",
            "Iced Melting Monster Latte", "Hot Pumpkin Cookie Butter Latte"};
        menubox = new JComboBox(menuboxoption);
        seasonalmenubox = new JComboBox(seasonalmenuboxoption);

        westpanel = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout());
        GridBagConstraints gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
        gbc.gridwidth = GridBagConstraints.REMAINDER;
        gbc.anchor = GridBagConstraints.WEST;
        gbc.weightx = 1;
        gbc.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
        gbc.insets = new Insets(8, 8, 8, 8);

        westpanel.add(coffeemenu, gbc);
        westpanel.add(menubox, gbc);

        westpanel.add(seasonaldrinks, gbc);
        westpanel.add(seasonalmenubox, gbc);

        westpanel.add(instructions, gbc);
        gbc.weighty = 1;
        gbc.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH;
        westpanel.add(new JScrollPane(instructionsarea), gbc);

        add(westpanel, BorderLayout.WEST);

        setTitle("Commonwealth Joe's");
        setSize(900, 500);
        setVisible(true);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        CoffeeShop run = new CoffeeShop();

    }
}

Have a look at How to Use GridBagLayout for more details