A flow layout arranges components in a directional flow, much like lines of text in a paragraph. The flow direction is determined by the container's
componentOrientation
property and may be one of two values:
ComponentOrientation.LEFT_TO_RIGHT
ComponentOrientation.RIGHT_TO_LEFT
Flow layouts are typically used to arrange buttons in a panel. It arranges buttons horizontally until no more buttons fit on the same line. The line alignment is determined by the
align
property. The possible values are:
- {@link #LEFT LEFT}
- {@link #RIGHT RIGHT}
- {@link #CENTER CENTER}
- {@link #LEADING LEADING}
- {@link #TRAILING TRAILING}
For example, the following picture shows an applet using the flow layout manager (its default layout manager) to position three buttons:
Here is the code for this applet:
import java.awt.*; import java.applet.Applet; public class myButtons extends Applet { Button button1, button2, button3; public void init() { button1 = new Button("Ok"); button2 = new Button("Open"); button3 = new Button("Close"); add(button1); add(button2); add(button3); } }
A flow layout lets each component assume its natural (preferred) size.
@version 1.58, 11/17/05
@author Arthur van Hoff
@author Sami Shaio
@since JDK1.0
@see ComponentOrientation