TableSorter is a decorator for TableModels; adding sorting functionality to a supplied TableModel. TableSorter does not store or copy the data in its TableModel; instead it maintains a map from the row indexes of the view to the row indexes of the model. As requests are made of the sorter (like getValueAt(row, col)) they are passed to the underlying model after the row numbers have been translated via the internal mapping array. This way, the TableSorter appears to hold another copy of the table with the rows in a different order.
TableSorter registers itself as a listener to the underlying model, just as the JTable itself would. Events recieved from the model are examined, sometimes manipulated (typically widened), and then passed on to the TableSorter's listeners (typically the JTable). If a change to the model has invalidated the order of TableSorter's rows, a note of this is made and the sorter will resort the rows the next time a value is requested.
When the tableHeader property is set, either by using the setTableHeader() method or the two argument constructor, the table header may be used as a complete UI for TableSorter. The default renderer of the tableHeader is decorated with a renderer that indicates the sorting status of each column. In addition, a mouse listener is installed with the following behavior:
- Mouse-click: Clears the sorting status of all other columns and advances the sorting status of that column through three values: {NOT_SORTED, ASCENDING, DESCENDING} (then back to NOT_SORTED again).
- SHIFT-mouse-click: Clears the sorting status of all other columns and cycles the sorting status of the column through the same three values, in the opposite order: {NOT_SORTED, DESCENDING, ASCENDING}.
- CONTROL-mouse-click and CONTROL-SHIFT-mouse-click: as above except that the changes to the column do not cancel the statuses of columns that are already sorting - giving a way to initiate a compound sort.
This class first appeared in the swing table demos in 1997 (v1.5) and then had a major rewrite in 2004 (v2.0) to make it compatible with Java 1.4.
This rewrite makes the class compile cleanly with Java 1.5 while maintaining backward compatibility with TableSorter v2.0.
@author Philip Milne
@author Brendon McLean
@author Dan van Enckevort
@author Parwinder Sekhon
@author ouroborus@ouroborus.org
@version 2.1 04/29/06