Adding multiple JButtons moves other JButtons (Java)

Question

The problem I've been having for a while is that whenever I add a JButton to a JPanel, any other JButton that I had on was shifted in that direction.

Here is the first code:

//imports
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Create the frame and panel and the Grid Bag Constraints
    JFrame frame = new JFrame();
    JPanel panel = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout());
    GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints();
    // Create ONE JButton
    JButton button1 = new JButton("Button1");
    // Set the frame's properties
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    frame.setSize(600, 600);
    frame.getContentPane().add(panel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
    frame.setVisible(true);
    // Set Basic Grid Bag Constraints settings.
    c.gridx = 0;
    c.gridy = 0;
    // Set the Insets
    c.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0);
    // Add the Grid Bag Constraints and button1 the panel
    panel.add(button1, c);
  }
}

Everything seems to working right? Well if we add a second button:

//imports
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Create the frame and panel and the Grid Bag Constraints
    JFrame frame = new JFrame();
    JPanel panel = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout());
    GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints();
    // Create TWO JButtons
    JButton button1 = new JButton("Button1");
    JButton button2 = new JButton("Button2");
    // Set the frame's properties
    frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    frame.setSize(600, 600);
    frame.getContentPane().add(panel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
    frame.setVisible(true);
    // Set Basic Grid Bag Constraints settings.
    c.gridx = 0;
    c.gridy = 0;
    // Set the Insets
    c.insets = new Insets(0, 0, 0, 0);
    // Add the Grid Bag Constraints and button1 the panel
    panel.add(button1, c);
    // Set the Insets
    c.insets = new Insets(500, 0, 0, 0);
    // Add the Grid Bag Constraints and button2 the panel
    panel.add(button2, c);
  }
}

Then button1 moves down towards button2. Does anyone know why and/or a fix for it?

EDIT: What I am asking, is how do you add another button without moving the other buttons.

Answer 1

I don't know what your intent is. You only state it doesn't do what you expect. So I can't give you an exact solution.

In any case start by reading the section from the Swing tutorial on How to Use GridBagLayout for working examples using a GridBagLayout .

I see two issues:

1. You never change the gridx/y values. Both components are added to grid (0, 0) which is not how the GridBagLayout should work. Every component needs to be added to a different cell.

2. The Insets value of (500, ....) seems very big.