My JPanels don's stack the way I expect them to

**amcqueen** · September 12th, 2011, 10:44 PM

This is my code:

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

class BlackjackGUI {
JButton hit;
JButton stand;

public static void main (String[] args) {

BlackjackGUI blackjack = new BlackjackGUI();
blackjack.go();
}

public void go() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.setSize(500,500);

frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOS E);

JPanel tophalf = new JPanel();
JPanel bottomhalf = new JPanel();
JLabel guititle = new JLabel (" Blackjack V1.0 ");
JPanel dealerhandtitle = new JPanel ();
JPanel dealerhandcards = new JPanel ();
JPanel dealerside = new JPanel();
JPanel playerside = new JPanel();
JPanel playerhandtitle = new JPanel ();
JPanel playerdealerarea = new JPanel ();
JPanel playerhandcards = new JPanel ();
JPanel hitstand = new JPanel ();
JButton Hit = new JButton(" Hit ");
JButton Stand = new JButton("Stand");
JLabel dealerhandtitletext = new JLabel ("Dealer's Hand");
JLabel dealerhandcardstext = new JLabel ("Dealer's Cards");
JLabel playerhandtitletext = new JLabel ("Player's Hand");
JLabel playerhandcardstext = new JLabel ("Player's Cards");

frame.getContentPane() .add(BorderLayout.NORTH, tophalf);
frame.getContentPane() .add(BorderLayout.SOUTH, bottomhalf);
tophalf.setBackground(Color.white);
bottomhalf.setBackground(Color.darkGray);
tophalf.add(guititle);
bottomhalf.add(BorderLayout.WEST, Hit);
bottomhalf.add(BorderLayout.EAST, Stand);
frame.getContentPane() .add(BorderLayout.CENTER, playerdealerarea);
playerdealerarea.add(BorderLayout.NORTH, dealerside);
playerdealerarea.add(BorderLayout.SOUTH, playerside);
dealerside.add(BorderLayout.NORTH, dealerhandtitle);
dealerside.add(BorderLayout.SOUTH, dealerhandcards);
playerside.add(BorderLayout.NORTH, playerhandcards);
playerside.add(BorderLayout.SOUTH, playerhandtitle);
dealerhandtitle.add(dealerhandtitletext);
dealerhandcards.add(dealerhandcardstext);
playerhandtitle.add(playerhandtitletext);
playerhandcards.add(playerhandcardstext);

frame.setVisible(true);
}

}

I am trying to stack my panels vertically to eventually make a blackjack game. Could someone please explain to me why the panels are stacking sideways rather than vertically? Thank you so much for the help.

**KevinWorkman** · September 13th, 2011, 07:49 AM

What exactly did you expect it to look like?

I suggest you create an SSCCE with a single JPanel and a couple JLabels, because it's a bit difficult to separate your actual problem from the rest of your layout code.

**KevinWorkman** · September 13th, 2011, 07:49 AM

What exactly did you expect it to look like?

I suggest you create an SSCCE with a single JPanel and a couple JLabels, because it's a bit difficult to separate your actual problem from the rest of your layout code.

**amcqueen** · September 14th, 2011, 03:24 PM

Okay. Sorry, I was really tired.

Basically I am hoping to have the panels stack vertically. I want four panels, one on top of the other. I tried to put a panel in the NORTH region of my JFrame and one in the SOUTH region of my JFrame. This worked. I then wanted to break the CENTER region into multiple panels. I added a JPanel to the CENTER using "frame.getContentPane() .add(BorderLayout.CENTER, centerarea);" where 'frame' is my JFrame and 'centerarea' is my JPanel. This seems to work as well. However, when I try to add a panel to the NORTH section and another to the SOUTH section [using -> centerarea.add(BorderLayout.SOUTH, thirdpanel); ], they seem to end up side by side rather than one on top of the other as I expected. Is this slightly clearer? This is the essence of my problem: I want to put two JPanels in another JPanel and have them be on top of each other.

JFrame frame = new JFrame();
JPanel centerarea = new JPanel();
JPanel bottom = new JPanel();
JPanel top = new JPanel();

frame.getContentPane() .add(BorderLayout.NORTH, top);
frame.getContentPane() .add(BorderLayout.SOUTH, bottom);

frame.getContentPane() .add(BorderLayout.CENTER, centerarea);

JPanel secondpanel = new JPanel();
JPanel thirdpanel = new JPanel();

centerarea.add(BorderLayout.NORTH, secondpanel);
centerarea.add(BorderLayout.SOUTH, thirdpanel);

I am hoping to end up with this:

_______________
|......TOP...........|
|______________|
| SECONDPANEL..|
|______________|
| THIRDPANEL.....|
|______________|
| BOTTOM..........|
|______________|

(The ... are just placeholders)

**KevinWorkman** · September 15th, 2011, 09:08 AM

You'd probably be better off using a BoxLayout. Recommended reading: A Visual Guide to Layout Managers (The Java™ Tutorials > Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing > Laying Out Components Within a Container)

But the reason it's not working the way you expect is that JPanels' default layout is FlowLayout, not BorderLayout. The content pane is a special case that automatically gets a BorderLayout. To do it your way, you'd have to set the layout to a BorderLayout first. But like I said, BoxLayout is your friend here.

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