Providing white space in a Swing GUI

Question

A GUI with no white space appears 'crowded'. How can I provide white space without resorting to explicitly setting the position or size of components?­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Answer 1

Using various LayoutManagers one can provide spacing between various components.

1.) BorderLayout :

• Overloaded Constructor : BorderLayout(int horizontalGap, int verticalGap)

• Getter and setter methods

  For Horizontal Spacing : BorderLayout.getHgap() and BorderLayout.setHgap(int hgap)

  For Vertical Spacing : BorderLayout.getVgap() and BorderLayout.setVgap()

2.) FlowLayout :

• Overloaded Constructor : FlowLayout(int align, int hgap, int vgap)

• Getter and setter methods

  For Horizontal Spacing : FlowLayout.getHgap() and FlowLayout.setHgap(int hgap)

  For Vertical Spacing : FlowLayout.getVgap() and FlowLayout.setVgap()

3.) GridLayout :

• Overloaded Constructor : GridLayout(int rows, int columns, int hgap, int vgap)

• Getter and setter methods

  For Horizontal Spacing : GridLayout.getHgap() and GridLayout.setHgap(int hgap)

  For Vertical Spacing : GridLayout.getVgap() and GridLayout.setVgap()

4.) GridBagLayout :

GridBagConstraints.insets

5.) CardLayout (example) :

CardLayout(int hGap, int vGap)

Example to display all constructors in action :

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

public class LayoutExample {

    private final int hGap = 5;
    private final int vGap = 5;

    private String[] borderConstraints = {
        BorderLayout.PAGE_START,
        BorderLayout.LINE_START,
        BorderLayout.CENTER,
        BorderLayout.LINE_END,
        BorderLayout.PAGE_END
    };

    private JButton[] buttons;

    private GridBagConstraints gbc;

    private JPanel borderPanel;
    private JPanel flowPanel;
    private JPanel gridPanel;
    private JPanel gridBagPanel;
    private JPanel cardPanel;

    public LayoutExample() {
        buttons = new JButton[16];
        gbc = new GridBagConstraints();
        gbc.anchor = GridBagConstraints.FIRST_LINE_START;   
        gbc.insets = new Insets(hGap, vGap, hGap, vGap);        
    }

    private void displayGUI() {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Layout Example");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);

        JPanel contentPane = new JPanel(
                        new GridLayout(0, 1, hGap, vGap));
        contentPane.setBorder(
            BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(hGap, vGap, hGap, vGap));
        borderPanel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(hGap, vGap));
        borderPanel.setBorder(
            BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("BorderLayout"));
        borderPanel.setOpaque(true);
        borderPanel.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
        for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
            buttons[i] = new JButton(borderConstraints[i]);
            borderPanel.add(buttons[i], borderConstraints[i]);
        }
        contentPane.add(borderPanel);

        flowPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(
                    FlowLayout.CENTER, hGap, vGap));
        flowPanel.setBorder(
            BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("FlowLayout"));
        flowPanel.setOpaque(true);
        flowPanel.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
        for (int i = 5; i < 8; i++) {
            buttons[i] = new JButton(Integer.toString(i));
            flowPanel.add(buttons[i]);
        }
        contentPane.add(flowPanel);

        gridPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(2, 2, hGap, vGap));
        gridPanel.setBorder(
            BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("GridLayout"));
        gridPanel.setOpaque(true);
        gridPanel.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
        for (int i = 8; i < 12; i++) {
            buttons[i] = new JButton(Integer.toString(i));
            gridPanel.add(buttons[i]);
        }
        contentPane.add(gridPanel);

        gridBagPanel = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout());
        gridBagPanel.setBorder(
            BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("GridBagLayout"));
        gridBagPanel.setOpaque(true);
        gridBagPanel.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
        buttons[12] = new JButton(Integer.toString(12));
        addComp(gridBagPanel, buttons[12], 0, 0, 1, 1
                            , GridBagConstraints.BOTH, 0.33, 0.5);
        buttons[13] = new JButton(Integer.toString(13));
        addComp(gridBagPanel, buttons[13], 1, 0, 1, 1
                            , GridBagConstraints.BOTH, 0.33, 0.5);
        buttons[14] = new JButton(Integer.toString(14));
        addComp(gridBagPanel, buttons[14], 0, 1, 2, 1
                            , GridBagConstraints.BOTH, 0.66, 0.5);
        buttons[15] = new JButton(Integer.toString(15));
        addComp(gridBagPanel, buttons[15], 2, 0, 1, 2
                            , GridBagConstraints.BOTH, 0.33, 1.0);
        contentPane.add(gridBagPanel);

        cardPanel = new JPanel(new CardLayout(hGap, vGap));
        cardPanel.setBorder(
            BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("CardLayout"));
        cardPanel.setOpaque(true);
        cardPanel.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
        cardPanel.add(getPanel(Color.BLUE));
        cardPanel.add(getPanel(Color.GREEN));
        contentPane.add(cardPanel);

        frame.setContentPane(contentPane);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    private JPanel getPanel(Color bColor) {
        JPanel panel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(
                    FlowLayout.CENTER, hGap, vGap));
        panel.setOpaque(true);
        panel.setBackground(bColor.darker().darker());
        JButton swapperButton = new JButton("Next");
        swapperButton.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
                CardLayout cardLayout = (CardLayout) cardPanel.getLayout();
                cardLayout.next(cardPanel);
            }
        });

        panel.add(swapperButton);

        return panel;
    }

    private void addComp(JPanel panel, JComponent comp
                                , int x, int y, int gWidth
                                    , int gHeight, int fill
                                        , double weightx, double weighty) {
        gbc.gridx = x;
        gbc.gridy = y;
        gbc.gridwidth = gWidth;
        gbc.gridheight = gHeight;
        gbc.fill = fill;
        gbc.weightx = weightx;
        gbc.weighty = weighty;      

        panel.add(comp, gbc);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Runnable runnable = new Runnable(){
            @Override
            public void run() {
                new LayoutExample().displayGUI();
            }
        };
        EventQueue.invokeLater(runnable);
    }
}

OUTPUT :