What is BorderLayout - Java Swing

Java examples for Swing:BorderLayout

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Introduction

The default layout for the content pane of a JFrame is a BorderLayout.

The BorderLayout divides a container's space into five areas: north, south, east, west, and center.

To add a component with a BorderLayout, specify one of the five areas.

BorderLayout class has five constants to identify each of the five areas.

The constants are NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST, and CENTER.

To add a button to the north area. 

JButton northButton = new JButton("North");
container.add(northButton, BorderLayout.NORTH);

The following code adds five buttons to the content pane of a JFrame.

Demo Code

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Container;

import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;

public class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    JFrame frame = new JFrame("BorderLayout Test");
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    Container container = frame.getContentPane();

    // Add a button to each of the five areas of the BorderLayout
    container.add(new JButton("North"), BorderLayout.NORTH);
    container.add(new JButton("South"), BorderLayout.SOUTH);
    container.add(new JButton("East"), BorderLayout.EAST);
    container.add(new JButton("West"), BorderLayout.WEST);
    container.add(new JButton("Center"), BorderLayout.CENTER);

    frame.pack();/*from ww w .j  a  v a  2  s .co  m*/
    frame.setVisible(true);
  }
}

You may leave some areas empty.

If you do not specify the area for a component, it is added to the center.

The following two statements have the same effect: 

container.add(new JButton("Close"));
container.add(new JButton("Close"), BorderLayout.CENTER);

One area in BorderLayout can only have one component. 

container.add(new JButton("Close"), BorderLayout.NORTH);
container.add(new JButton("Help"), BorderLayout.NORTH);

Only JButton("Help") is there.


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