I found a solution to the problem that I stated above. I found it on the following link: http://www.java-forums.org/awt-swing/29040-programmatically-starting-cell-editing-jtable.html The solution involved modifying the declaration of the table by writing the changeselection method:
JTable table = new JTable(data, columnNames) {
public void changeSelection(int row, int column, boolean toggle, boolean extend) {
super.changeSelection(row, column, toggle, extend);
if (editCellAt(row, column))
{
Component editor = getEditorComponent();
editor.requestFocusInWindow();
}
}
};