The selected items must be in a contiguous range
import javax.swing.DefaultListSelectionModel; import javax.swing.JList; public class Main { public static void main(String[] argv) throws Exception { String[] items = { "A", "B", "C", "D" }; JList list = new JList(items); list.setSelectionMode(DefaultListSelectionModel.SINGLE_INTERVAL_SELECTION); } }