Keeping SWT Text box size after setting text

Question

When I use setText() on one or both Text fields, it resizes the field to the length of the text. How do I prevent that from happening?

inner = new Composite(middle, SWT.NONE);
inner.setLayout(new GridLayout(5, false));

chkbxBtn = new Button(inner, SWT.CHECK);
chkbxBtn.setText("Check box button: ");
chkbxBtn.setSelection(false);

new Label(inner, SWT.NONE).setText("Text field 1: ");
startCol = new Text(inner, SWT.BORDER | SWT.NONE);

new Label(inner, SWT.NONE).setText("Text field 2: ");
endCol = new Text(inner, SWT.BORDER | SWT.NONE);

Answer 1

To clarify, SWT does not re-layout after changing the text (or any other property) of a Text control (or controls in general). It is your code or a resize event that causes the re-layout.

If you want a control to have a pre-set size, and its parent uses a GridLayout, you can set GridData with a widthHint like this:

GridData gridData = new GridData();
gridData.widthHint = ...
text.setLayoutData( gridData );

However, it is usually a bad idea trying to control the size of widgets. Thus make sure that your layout strategy aligns with best practices of UI design.

Answer 2

There are situations when changes to the text trigger a component re-layout. For example, show an error message as a text validation result (I found it in SWT forms). Setting the width hint in the GridData for the text component fixes this. Width hint can be set to 0 or the minimum required size.

    GridDataFactory.swtDefaults()//
            .grab(true, false)//
            .hint(0, SWT.DEFAULT)// width hint prevents text from expanding to full line
            .align(SWT.FILL, SWT.CENTER)//
            .applyTo(text);