JXTable listen to sort and sort a similar table the same way

Question

I have a number of JXTables which all have the same columns (but different data). You can sort the data by clicking on one the header of one of the columns. What I want now, is that the other tables are sorted the same way when clicking on the header of one of the table.

Answer 1

You could define a mediator class that references each JTable's RowSorter and registers itself as a RowSorterListener with each sorter. When a given sorter changes you could retrieve its current list of sort keys using getSortKets() and pass them to every other sorter using setSortKeys(List<? extends SortKey>).

Example

First we define the mediator class:

public class SortMediator implements RowSorterListener {
  private final List<RowSorter> sorters;
  private boolean changing;

  public void addRowSorter(RowSorter sorter) {
    this.sorters.add(sorter);
  }

  public void sorterChanged(RowSorterEvent e) {
    ...
  }
}

Now we implement sorterChanged(RowSorterEvent e) to respond to a given sorter event:

  public void sorterChanged(RowSorterEvent e) {
    // The changing flag prevents an infinite loop after responding to the inital
    // sort event.
    if (!changing) {
      changing = true;

      RowSorter changedSorter = e.getSource();
      List<? extends SortKey> keys = changedSorter.getKeys();

      for (RowSorter sorter : sorters) {
        if (sorter != changedSorter) {
          // Install new sort keys, which will cause the sorter to re-sort.
          // The changing flag will prevent the mediator from reacting to this.
          sorter.setSortKeys(keys);
        }
      }
    }
  }

Answer 2

I would not do that, because it takes control away from the user: s/he may want to have the tables sorted differently, to compare different pieces of data.

Instead, add a "Sort By" option to your View menu. Changing this option will sort all tables, but then leave them alone unless the user wants to sort a specific table.