An implementation of RowSorter that provides sorting and filtering using a TableModel. The following example shows adding sorting to a JTable:

  TableModel myModel = createMyTableModel();
  JTable table = new JTable(myModel);
  table.setRowSorter(new TableRowSorter(myModel));

This will do all the wiring such that when the user does the appropriate gesture, such as clicking on the column header, the table will visually sort.

JTable's row-based methods and JTable's selection model refer to the view and not the underlying model. Therefore, it is necessary to convert between the two. For example, to get the selection in terms of myModel you need to convert the indices:

  int[] selection = table.getSelectedRows();
  for (int i = 0; i < selection.length; i++) {
    selection[i] = table.convertRowIndexToModel(selection[i]);
  }

Similarly to select a row in JTable based on a coordinate from the underlying model do the inverse:

  table.setRowSelectionInterval(table.convertRowIndexToView(row),
                                table.convertRowIndexToView(row));

The previous example assumes you have not enabled filtering. If you have enabled filtering convertRowIndexToView will return -1 for locations that are not visible in the view.

TableRowSorter uses Comparators for doing comparisons. The following defines how a Comparator is chosen for a column:

1. If a Comparator has been specified for the column by the setComparator method, use it.
2. If the column class as returned by getColumnClass is String, use the Comparator returned by Collator.getInstance().
3. If the column class implements Comparable, use a Comparator that invokes the compareTo method.
4. If a TableStringConverter has been specified, use it to convert the values to Strings and then use the Comparator returned by Collator.getInstance().
5. Otherwise use the Comparator returned by Collator.getInstance() on the results from calling toString on the objects.

In addition to sorting TableRowSorter provides the ability to filter. A filter is specified using the setFilter method. The following example will only show rows containing the string "foo":

  TableModel myModel = createMyTableModel();
  TableRowSorter sorter = new TableRowSorter(myModel);
  sorter.setRowFilter(RowFilter.regexFilter(".*foo.*"));
  JTable table = new JTable(myModel);
  table.setRowSorter(sorter);

If the underlying model structure changes (the modelStructureChanged method is invoked) the following are reset to their default values: Comparators by column, current sort order, and whether each column is sortable. The default sort order is natural (the same as the model), and columns are sortable by default.

TableRowSorter has one formal type parameter: the type of the model. Passing in a type that corresponds exactly to your model allows you to filter based on your model without casting. Refer to the documentation of RowFilter for an example of this.