Java Swing: Mouseover text on JComboBox items

javaswing

In Swing, is there a way to define mouseover text (or tool tip text) for each item in a JComboBox?

Best Answer

There is a much better way to do this than the ToolTipComboBox answer already given.

First, make a custom ListCellRenderer:

package com.example;

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.util.List;

public class ComboboxToolTipRenderer extends DefaultListCellRenderer {
    List<String> tooltips;

    @Override
    public Component getListCellRendererComponent(JList list, Object value,
                        int index, boolean isSelected, boolean cellHasFocus) {

        JComponent comp = (JComponent) super.getListCellRendererComponent(list,
                value, index, isSelected, cellHasFocus);

        if (-1 < index && null != value && null != tooltips) {
            list.setToolTipText(tooltips.get(index));
        }
        return comp;
    }

    public void setTooltips(List<String> tooltips) {
        this.tooltips = tooltips;
    }
}

Then use it like this:

JComboBox comboBox = new JComboBox();
ComboboxToolTipRenderer renderer = new ComboboxToolTipRenderer();
comboBox.setRenderer(renderer);
...
//make a loop as needed
comboBox.addItem(itemString);
tooltips.add(tooltipString);
...
renderer.setTooltips(tooltips);

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Best Answer

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