Java button layout right allign

Question

Please could someone provide a little insight into my code. I am wanting to get the button on the balance tab to be aligned to the top left. I have tried different layout managers but all seem to result in the same or similar result of the button being in the center

public class DefaultView extends JFrame {

    public DefaultView() {    
        JButton SendBalInc = new JButton();
        SendBalInc.setText("Balance");    
        GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints();
        GridBagLayout gridbag = new GridBagLayout();
        c.fill = GridBagConstraints.BOTH;
        // Bal.fill = GridBagConstraints.NONE;    
        JPanel window = new JPanel();
        this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        this.setSize(800, 600);
        // this.setUndecorated(true);    
        window.setBackground(Color.WHITE);    
        JTabbedPane tabbedPane = new JTabbedPane();
        tabbedPane.setBackground(Color.WHITE);    
        JComponent panel1 = makeTextPanel("Panel #1");
        tabbedPane.addTab("PIN ", panel1);    
        JPanel panel2 = new JPanel();
        Box box = Box.createHorizontalBox();
        box.add(Box.createHorizontalGlue());    
        box.add(SendBalInc);    
        panel2.setBackground(Color.WHITE);    
        panel2.add(box);    
        tabbedPane.addTab("Balance", panel2);    
        JComponent panel3 = makeTextPanel("Panel #3");
        tabbedPane.addTab("Dep", panel3);    
        JComponent panel4 = makeTextPanel("Panel #4");
        tabbedPane.addTab("Bill", panel4);    
        window.setLayout(new GridLayout(1, 2));
        window.add(tabbedPane);    
        this.add(window);    
    }

    protected JComponent makeTextPanel(String text) {
        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        panel.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
        return panel;
    }    
}

Answer 1

I prefer GridBagLayout:

    final JPanel panel2 = new JPanel();
    panel2.setLayout(new GridBagLayout());
    panel2.setBackground(Color.WHITE);

    final GridBagConstraints cons = new GridBagConstraints();
    cons.weightx = 1D;
    cons.weighty = 1D;
    cons.anchor = GridBagConstraints.NORTHWEST;
    panel2.add(box, cons);

    tabbedPane.addTab("Balance", panel2);

note: box is not needed

Answer 2

You can simply use BoxLayout

JPanel panel2 = new JPanel();
panel2.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel2, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
panel2.setBackground(Color.WHITE);
panel2.add(SendBalInc);

But I think that Betlista's answer with GridBag may be preferable, since you have many more options to tweak the layout further in the future.

Answer 3

Create the Box and add it directly to the JTabbedPane, rather than putting it in a panel first. And make the box a vertical box, so that you can control the alignment of its children by setting setAlignmentX on each child.

    Box box = Box.createVerticalBox();
    box.add(SendBalInc);
    tabbedPane.addTab("Balance", box);

Answer 4

You can add the following to alligh the button to the left:

panel2.setLayout(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEFT));

You can find more in documentation http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/layout/layoutlist.html