3-State Swing Checkbox

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Chas Douglass - 28 Dec 2004 16:58 GMT

Googling hasn't found me anything useful -- but perhaps I'm not coming up
with good search terms...

I'm looking for a Swing "3-state checkbox". In this particular case the
three states are "unknown", "yes", and "no" but the general applicability
is, I think, obvious.

Windows does something similar with a checkbox that is greyed for "not
selected" (or sometimes meaning "do not override").

Thanks in advance,

Chas Douglass

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Andrew Thompson - 28 Dec 2004 17:33 GMT

> I'm looking for a Swing "3-state checkbox". In this particular case the
> three states are "unknown", "yes", and "no" ...

<sscce>
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;

/** Demonstrates a three state checkbox. */
class ThreeStateCheckbox {

public static void main(String args[]) {

JFrame f = new JFrame("Three State Checkbox");
Container c = f.getContentPane();
c.setLayout(new GridLayout(0,1));

ButtonGroup bg = new ButtonGroup();

JCheckBox yes = new JCheckBox("Yes");
bg.add( yes );
c.add( yes );

JCheckBox no = new JCheckBox("No");
bg.add( no );
c.add( no );

JCheckBox unknown = new JCheckBox("Unknown");
bg.add( unknown );
c.add( unknown );

f.pack();
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
f.setVisible(true);
}
}
</sscce>

HTH

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Chas Douglass - 28 Dec 2004 18:40 GMT

>> I'm looking for a Swing "3-state checkbox". In this particular case
>> the three states are "unknown", "yes", and "no" ...
>
><sscce>

[snip]

Thanks, but I'm really looking for a single control. It needs to be placed
in a JTable (well, actually, several of them will get placed in a single
JTable) and "real estate" is an issue.

Chas Douglass

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Andrei Kouznetsov - 28 Dec 2004 22:09 GMT

>>> I'm looking for a Swing "3-state checkbox". In this particular case
>>> the three states are "unknown", "yes", and "no" ...
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> in a JTable (well, actually, several of them will get placed in a single
> JTable) and "real estate" is an issue.

why you don't want to use simple JComboBox with 3 entries?

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Andrey Kuznetsov
http://uio.dev.java.net Unified I/O for Java
http://reader.imagero.com Java image reader
http://jgui.imagero.com Java GUI components and utilities

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Chas Douglass - 28 Dec 2004 23:42 GMT

>>>> I'm looking for a Swing "3-state checkbox". In this particular
>>>> case the three states are "unknown", "yes", and "no" ...
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> why you don't want to use simple JComboBox with 3 entries?

Strictly aesthetics. I think a 3-state checkbox (again, similar to what
I've seen in Windows property sheets, which can be checked, unchecked, or
"sort of grayed" (but not disabled) which means "inherited").

I'm sorry I can't remember exactly where I've seen that -- I thought it was
a fairly common UI pattern.

Chas Douglass

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Andrei Kouznetsov - 29 Dec 2004 00:58 GMT

>>>>> I'm looking for a Swing "3-state checkbox". In this particular
>>>>> case the three states are "unknown", "yes", and "no" ...
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> was
> a fairly common UI pattern.

try this link: http://www.javaspecialists.co.za/archive/Issue082.html

Signature

Andrey Kuznetsov
http://uio.dev.java.net Unified I/O for Java
http://reader.imagero.com Java image reader
http://jgui.imagero.com Java GUI components and utilities

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Chas Douglass - 29 Dec 2004 20:41 GMT

> try this link: http://www.javaspecialists.co.za/archive/Issue082.html

Thanks, I'll give this a try. I appreciate the response.

Chas Douglass

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Andrew Thompson - 29 Dec 2004 13:57 GMT

> .."real estate" is an issue.

Well, fussy, fussy! OK, try this..

<sscce>
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;

/** Demonstrates a three state checkbox, that's small. */
class ThreeStateCheckbox {

public static void main(String args[]) {

JFrame f = new JFrame("Three State Checkbox");
Container c = f.getContentPane();
c.setLayout(new GridLayout(1,0));

ButtonGroup bg = new ButtonGroup();

JCheckBox yes = new JCheckBox("Y");
yes.setToolTipText("Yes, for sure, feel free..");
bg.add( yes );
c.add( yes );

JCheckBox no = new JCheckBox("N");
no.setToolTipText("No way Jose!");
bg.add( no );
c.add( no );

JCheckBox unknown = new JCheckBox("?", true);
unknown.setToolTipText("Don't ask me, I just work here..");
bg.add( unknown );
c.add( unknown );

f.pack();
f.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
f.setVisible(true);
}
}
</sscce>

Of course, that'll 'cost' you double. ;-)

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Chas Douglass - 29 Dec 2004 20:42 GMT

>> .."real estate" is an issue.
>
[quoted text clipped - 38 lines]
>
> Of course, that'll 'cost' you double. ;-)

Thanks for the effort, Andrew, but it's still not quite what I was hoping
to find.

I appreciate it though, it is a good backup plan.

Chas Douglass

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3-State Swing Checkbox

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