JavaFX fixed button size with dynamic length of text

Question

I have a problem with my button size in JavaFX. I want to have fixed size buttons but when I change text on the buttons, changes button size aswell.

I have 5 buttons and 5 random numbers between 1 - 20. Buttons with single digit is smaller then buttons with two digits. I want both same size.

What can I do?

• Tomas Mikula: You can implement a container that contains all the buttons, say ButtonPane, and layouts all of them to the maximum preferred width among all the buttons. That is, ButtonPane overrides the layoutChildren() method.
• Tomas Mikula: As a special case, if you put your buttons into a VBox with fillWidth=true (the default), they will all be resized to the width of the VBox, i.e. to the same width.

Answer 1

Here is one way to do this. The buttons go in a TilePane, the TilePane goes in a group so that everything in it remains at it's preferred size. A preferred size is set on each button.

fixed width buttons

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.geometry.Insets;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.Parent;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.layout.TilePane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import java.util.Random;
public class FixedSizes extends Application {
 private static final int NUM_BUTTONS = 5;
 private static final int MAX_BUTTON_VALUE = 20;
 private static final Random random = new Random(42);
 @Override
 public void start(Stage stage) throws Exception {
 stage.setScene(new Scene(generateButtonLayout()));
 stage.show();
 }
 private Parent generateButtonLayout() {
 TilePane layout = new TilePane();
 layout.setHgap(10);
 layout.setPrefColumns(NUM_BUTTONS);
 layout.getChildren().setAll(createButtons());
 layout.setPadding(new Insets(10));
 return new Group(layout);
 }
 private Button[] createButtons() {
 Button[] buttons = new Button[NUM_BUTTONS];
 for (int i = 0; i < buttons.length; i++) {
 buttons[i] = createButton();
 }
 return buttons;
 }
 private Button createButton() {
 Button button = new Button(generateButtonText());
 button.setOnAction(event -> button.setText(generateButtonText()));
 button.setPrefWidth(50);
 return button;
 }
 private String generateButtonText() {
 return "" + (random.nextInt(MAX_BUTTON_VALUE) + 1);
 }
 public static void main(String[] args) {
 launch(args);
 }
}