how do you left-align text in JTableHeader?

Question

I've tried the following,

foo.getTableHeader().setLayout(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT));

where foo is the JTable instance, but the text remains centered. Why?

Answer 1

Your code affects where the table header itself is positioned, not the items within each header. You need to call getTableHeader().setDefaultRenderer(xxx) with something that left-aligns the types you care about.

Answer 2

((DefaultTableCellRenderer)table.getTableHeader().getDefaultRenderer()).setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.LEFT)

The easiest way I found working for me. Of course, you can use another centering constant for JLabel.LEFT.