JTable Tabbing

[G Estes]

What would you suggest as the best approach to making the Shift+Tab move backward through the editable fields in a JTable (as is the behavior in MS Excel)? This would also mimic the the behavior on a panel with tab order set among text fields and buttons...the Shift+Tab will move backward through the order.

[Michael Dunn]

> What would you suggest as the best approach...

best? doubtful, but seems to work OK (limited testing)

    
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.table.*;
class Testing
{
  int x = 0;
  public void buildGUI()
  {
    JTable table = new JTable(10,5){
      public boolean isCellEditable(int row, int col){
        if(row == 2 && col == 2) return false;
        return true;
      }
    };
    table.setValueAt("uneditable",2,2);
    InputMap im = table.getInputMap(JTable.WHEN_ANCESTOR_OF_FOCUSED_COMPONENT);
    KeyStroke tab = KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_TAB, java.awt.event.InputEvent.SHIFT_DOWN_MASK );
    Action tabAction = new AbstractAction(){
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
        JTable table = (JTable)e.getSource();
        int column = table.getSelectedColumn();
        int row = table.getSelectedRow();
        do{
          if(column == -1) row = 0;//handle no selection
          if(row == -1) column = 0;//ditto
          column--;
          if(column < 1)
          {
            column = table.getColumnCount()-1;
            row--;
            if(row < 1) row = table.getRowCount()-1;
          }
        }while(table.isCellEditable(row,column) == false);
        table.changeSelection(row, column, false, false);
      }
    };
    table.getActionMap().put(im.get(tab), tabAction);
    JFrame f = new JFrame();
    f.getContentPane().add(new JScrollPane(table));
    f.pack();
    f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
    f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    f.setVisible(true);
 
  }
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
      public void run(){
        new Testing().buildGUI();
      }
    });
  }
}

[G Estes]

Thanks for the response. Our JTable has several custom renderer/editors and while I can see that the selection is happening (i.e. I Shift+Tab then type and the text goes into the correct cell), the editor is not coming up on entry - as it does doing a normal Tab action. Any suggestions as to what may be different here?

[Michael Dunn]

> Any suggestions as to what may be different here?

in the source code for JTable, in processKeyBinding(..) the event is passed
to the editor component.

perhaps this addition might be enough

table.changeSelection(row, column, false, false);
table.editCellAt(row,column);//<-------------

[G Estes]

That was a good thought, but made no impact. Almost like I need to fire an event to trigger edit mode maybe?