How to automatically break the text of a JLabel with ... when it gets too long with MigLayout?

Question

For example, have a JLabel normally show its text when the text is short enough:

Hello world!

But automatically break it with "..." when it gets too long:

Hello ladies and gent...

Is there any way to do this when you use MigLayout? In other layouts this is the default behavior but appearantly not in MigLayout...

enter image description here

@AndrewThompson Sorry, just discovered it was because I used MigLayout. Yes, with other layouts it does this just fine. With MigLayout it doesn't for some reason. — stommestack, Nov 16 '13 at 12:47
I've never used `MigLayout`, but I am *pretty* sure it has layout constraints when adding a GUI element that suggest/support a maximum size for it. — Andrew Thompson, Nov 16 '13 at 12:54
Showing me a screen-shot of the text not going to `...` in no way convinces me that `MigLayout` does not have that ability. — Andrew Thompson, Nov 16 '13 at 13:01
@AndrewThompson Oh, ok. But apparently it needs to be enabled some way... — stommestack, Nov 16 '13 at 13:01
Surely [`width`](http://migcalendar.com/miglayout/javadoc/net/miginfocom/layout/LC.html#width%28java.lang.String%29) is the important thing here? — Andrew Thompson, Nov 16 '13 at 13:05
I suggest you post an [SSCCE](http://sscce.org/) of your best attempt. — Andrew Thompson, Nov 16 '13 at 13:32

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 16 '13 at 15:35

Not entirely sure that I understand what you mean by "break": I'm assuming you want the ellipses to show up (to indicate that the label is longer) vs. simply cutting the text off.

the ellipses are showing when the label's size is smaller than the text requires
the label's minSize is about the same as its preferred
by default, MigLayout doesn't size a component below its min

So you have to explicitly allow the manager to size smaller than the min by overruling the component's min with a component constraint:

content.add(new JLabel("we are looooong and getting longer by the minute"), "wmin 0");

(might be possible on a column constraint as well, didn't check)

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 16 '13 at 12:49

1

Place it inside <html> tags and use <br /> to add new line

Mylabel.setText("<html><div style=\"text-align: center;\">"+
                    "First Line <br />"+
                    "Second Line</html>"
                );

This would look like

                 ----------------------
                 |    First Line      |
                 |    Second Line     | 
                 ----------------------

answered Nov 16 '13 at 12:49

Ankit Rustagi

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Nope. I thought that from glancing at the title, but that is *not* what the OP wants. Also, don't use `
` when there is [CSS](http://stackoverflow.com/a/7861833/418556) to do the job better. – Andrew Thompson Nov 16 '13 at 12:52

How to automatically break the text of a JLabel with ... when it gets too long with MigLayout?

2 Answers2