Swing Examples - Using Custom comboboxes

Following example showcase how to create custom comboboxes in a Java Swing application.

We are using the following APIs.

• JComboBox − To create a standard combobox.

• JCheckBox.setRenderer(renderer); − To set a custom renderer.

• ListCellRenderer − To create a custom cell renderer for combo box.

Example

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.FlowLayout;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.LayoutManager;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

import javax.swing.JComboBox;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JList;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.ListCellRenderer;

public class SwingTester {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      createWindow();
   }

   private static void createWindow() {    
      JFrame frame = new JFrame("Swing Tester");
      frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
      createUI(frame);
      frame.setSize(560, 200);      
      frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);  
      frame.setVisible(true);
   }

   private static void createUI(final JFrame frame){  
      JPanel panel = new JPanel();
      LayoutManager layout = new FlowLayout();  
      panel.setLayout(layout);       

      String[] numbers = {"One", "Two", "Three", "Four", "Five"};

      JComboBox<String> comboBox = new JComboBox<>(numbers);

      ComboBoxRenderer renderer= new ComboBoxRenderer();
      renderer.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 20));
      comboBox.setRenderer(renderer);
      comboBox.setSelectedIndex(3);

      comboBox.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
         public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            JComboBox combo = (JComboBox)e.getSource();
            JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(frame,combo.getSelectedItem());
        
         }
      });

      panel.add(comboBox);   
      frame.getContentPane().add(panel, BorderLayout.CENTER);    
   }
}

class ComboBoxRenderer extends JLabel implements ListCellRenderer<String> {
   private Font customFont;
   public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList<? extends String> list,
      String value, int index, boolean isSelected, boolean cellHasFocus) {
      setFont(list.getFont().deriveFont(Font.ITALIC));
      setText(value);
      return this;
   } 
}

Output