JavaFX - SplitPane

The splitpane is a control with two or more slides separated by dividers. Each slide provides a different viewport allowing us to embed multiple components. We can also set the orientation of the splitpane to be horizontal or vertical. Let's have a look at what a typical splitpane looks like −

JavaFX SplitPane

SplitPane in JavaFX

In JavaFX, the class named SplitPane represents a splitpane. To use the feature of spiltpane, we need to create an instance of the SplitPane class and add the components we want to display inside it. These components can be any JavaFX nodes, such as labels, buttons, images, text fields and so on. We can use any of the below constructors to create a splitpane −

  • SplitPane() − It is the default constructor used to create a splitpane without any predefined nodes.

  • SplitPane(Node components) − It is the parameterized constructor of SplitPane class which will create a new splitpane with the specified nodes.

Steps to create a splitpane in JavaFX

To create a splitpane in JavaFX, follow the steps given below.

Step 1: Create two or more Nodes

As discussed earlier, a splitpane contains at least two slides. Hence, our first step would be creating two or more nodes to display within these distinct slides. For the sake of this example, we are going to use the labels. In JavaFX, the labels are created by instantiating the class named Label which belongs to a package javafx.scene.control. Create the labels as shown below −

// Creating four labels
Label labelOne = new Label("Label 1");
Label labelTwo = new Label("Label 2");
Label labelThree = new Label("Label 3");
Label labelFour = new Label("Label 4");

Similarly, create the desired nodes by instantiating their respective classes.

Step 2: Instantiate the SplitPane class

Instantiate the SplitPane class of package javafx.scene.control without passing any parameter value to its constructor and add all the labels to the splitpane using the getItems() method.

// instantiating the SplitPane class
SplitPane splitP = new SplitPane();
// adding the labels to the SplitPane
splitP.getItems().addAll(labelOne, labelTwo, labelThree, labelFour);

Step 3: Launching Application

After creating the SplitPane and adding the labels to it, follow the given steps below to launch the application properly −

  • Firstly, instantiate the class named Scene by passing the SplitPane object as a parameter value to its constructor. Also, pass dimensions of the application screen as optional parameters to this constructor.

  • Then, set the title to the stage using the setTitle() method of the Stage class.

  • Now, a Scene object is added to the stage using the setScene() method of the class named Stage.

  • Display the contents of the scene using the method named show().

  • Lastly, the application is launched with the help of the launch() method.

Example

Following is the program which will create a splitpane in JavaFX. Save this code in a file with the name NewSplitpane.java.

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.control.SplitPane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
public class NewSplitpane extends Application {
   @Override
   public void start(Stage stage) {
      // Creating four labels
      Label labelOne = new Label("Label 1");
      Label labelTwo = new Label("Label 2");
      Label labelThree = new Label("Label 3");
      Label labelFour = new Label("Label 4");
      // instantiating the SplitPane class
      SplitPane splitP = new SplitPane();
      // adding the labels to the SplitPane
      splitP.getItems().addAll(labelOne, labelTwo, labelThree, labelFour);
      // Creating a Scene with the SplitPane as its root node
      Scene scene = new Scene(splitP, 400, 300);
      // to set the title
      stage.setTitle("SplitPane in JavaFX");
      // Setting the Scene of the Stage
      stage.setScene(scene);
      // Display the Stage
      stage.show();
   }
      public static void main(String[] args) {
      launch(args);
   }
}

Compile and execute the above Java file using the command prompt with the help of following commands.

javac --module-path %PATH_TO_FX% --add-modules javafx.controls NewSplitpane.java
java --module-path %PATH_TO_FX% --add-modules javafx.controls NewSplitpane

Output

On executing, the above program generates a JavaFX window displaying a SplitPane with four labels and three dividers as shown below.

SplitPane Output

Setting the Orientation of the SplitPane

By default, the SplitPane has a horizontal orientation, meaning that the components are placed next to each other from left to right. We can change the orientation to vertical by calling the setOrientation() method of the SplitPane class and passing an Orientation.VERTICAL argument.

Example

In the following JavaFX program, we will create a vertical SplitPane. Save this code in a file with the name SplitpaneDemo.java.

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.geometry.Orientation;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.control.SplitPane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
public class SplitpaneDemo extends Application {
   @Override
   public void start(Stage stage) {
      // Create a SplitPane with vertical orientation
      SplitPane splitP = new SplitPane();
      splitP.setOrientation(Orientation.VERTICAL);
      // vertical box to hold the labels
      VBox box1 = new VBox();
      VBox box2 = new VBox();
      // Create two labels and add them to the SplitPane
      box1.getChildren().add(new Label("This is \nthe \nfirst section"));
      box2.getChildren().add(new Label("This is \nthe \nsecond section"));
      splitP.getItems().addAll(box1, box2);
      // Set the divider position to 50
      splitP.setDividerPositions(0.5);
      // Create a scene and show the stage
      Scene scene = new Scene(splitP, 400, 300);
      stage.setTitle("SplitPane in JavaFX");
      stage.setScene(scene);
      stage.show();
   }
      public static void main(String[] args) {
      launch(args);
   }
}

Compile and execute the saved Java file from the command prompt using the following commands.

javac --module-path %PATH_TO_FX% --add-modules javafx.controls SplitpaneDemo.java
java --module-path %PATH_TO_FX% --add-modules javafx.controls SplitpaneDemo

Output

When we execute the above code, it will generate the following output.

Splitpane Output2
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