As explained in the JFace introduction a content provider delivers the data which should be displayed in the table.

We could implement our own content provider by implementing the Interface "org.eclipse.jface.viewers.IStructuredContentProvider". Fortunately the platform provides already a good default implementation of this interface via the class "ArrayContentProvider". ArrayContentProvider supports Arrays or Lists as input.

A content provider implements the method getElements(). This method is called by the viewer to translate the input into an array of elements. These elements are displayed as individual elements by the viewer, e.g. in our example as individual rows. The input to the content provider is provided via the method setInput() of the viewer.

Columns in a JFace table are defined via instances of "TableViewerColumn". Each "TableViewerColumn" needs to get a label provider assigned via the method setLabelProvider(). The label provider defines how the data from the model will be displayed. Typically you return the String which should be displayed and / or an icon.

setLabelProvider() method expects an instance of the abstract class "CellLabelProvider". A default implementation of this class is provided by "ColumnLabelProvider".

You can also use "StyledCellLabelProvider" which is an extension of "CellLabelProvider" and provides the possibility to style the text, e.g with colors or icon decoraters.

Before Eclipse 3.3 you had to use the the interface "org.eclipse.jface.viewers.ITableLabelProvider" to define label providers. "TableViewerColumn" together with "CellLabelProvider" allow more flexibility and should be preferred over the usage of the old interface.

Change the class "View.java" to the following.

				
package de.vogella.jface.tableviewer;

import org.eclipse.jface.viewers.ArrayContentProvider;
import org.eclipse.jface.viewers.ColumnLabelProvider;
import org.eclipse.jface.viewers.TableViewer;
import org.eclipse.jface.viewers.TableViewerColumn;
import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Image;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.GridData;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.GridLayout;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Composite;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Label;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Table;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.TableColumn;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Text;
import org.eclipse.ui.part.ViewPart;

import de.vogella.jface.tableviewer.model.ModelProvider;
import de.vogella.jface.tableviewer.model.Person;

public class View extends ViewPart {
	public static final String ID = "de.vogella.jface.tableviewer.view";

	private TableViewer viewer;
	// We use icons
	private static final Image CHECKED = Activator.getImageDescriptor(
			"icons/checked.gif").createImage();
	private static final Image UNCHECKED = Activator.getImageDescriptor(
			"icons/unchecked.gif").createImage();

	public void createPartControl(Composite parent) {
		GridLayout layout = new GridLayout(2, false);
		parent.setLayout(layout);
		Label searchLabel = new Label(parent, SWT.NONE);
		searchLabel.setText("Search: ");
		final Text searchText = new Text(parent, SWT.BORDER | SWT.SEARCH);
		searchText.setLayoutData(new GridData(GridData.GRAB_HORIZONTAL
				| GridData.HORIZONTAL_ALIGN_FILL));
		createViewer(parent);
	}

	private void createViewer(Composite parent) {
		viewer = new TableViewer(parent, SWT.MULTI | SWT.H_SCROLL
				| SWT.V_SCROLL | SWT.FULL_SELECTION | SWT.BORDER);
		createColumns(parent, viewer);
		final Table table = viewer.getTable();
		table.setHeaderVisible(true);
		table.setLinesVisible(true);

		viewer.setContentProvider(new ArrayContentProvider());
		// Get the content for the viewer, setInput will call getElements in the
		// contentProvider
		viewer.setInput(ModelProvider.INSTANCE.getPersons());
		// Make the selection available to other views
		getSite().setSelectionProvider(viewer);
		// Set the sorter for the table

		// Layout the viewer
		GridData gridData = new GridData();
		gridData.verticalAlignment = GridData.FILL;
		gridData.horizontalSpan = 2;
		gridData.grabExcessHorizontalSpace = true;
		gridData.grabExcessVerticalSpace = true;
		gridData.horizontalAlignment = GridData.FILL;
		viewer.getControl().setLayoutData(gridData);
	}

	public TableViewer getViewer() {
		return viewer;
	}

	// This will create the columns for the table
	private void createColumns(final Composite parent, final TableViewer viewer) {
		String[] titles = { "First name", "Last name", "Gender", "Married" };
		int[] bounds = { 100, 100, 100, 100 };

		// First column is for the first name
		TableViewerColumn col = createTableViewerColumn(titles[0], bounds[0]);
		col.setLabelProvider(new ColumnLabelProvider() {
			@Override
			public String getText(Object element) {
				Person p = (Person) element;
				return p.getFirstName();
			}
		});

		// Second column is for the last name
		col = createTableViewerColumn(titles[1], bounds[1]);
		col.setLabelProvider(new ColumnLabelProvider() {
			@Override
			public String getText(Object element) {
				Person p = (Person) element;
				return p.getLastName();
			}
		});

		// Now the gender
		col = createTableViewerColumn(titles[2], bounds[2]);
		col.setLabelProvider(new ColumnLabelProvider() {
			@Override
			public String getText(Object element) {
				Person p = (Person) element;
				return p.getGender();
			}
		});

		// // Now the status married
		col = createTableViewerColumn(titles[3], bounds[3]);
		col.setLabelProvider(new ColumnLabelProvider() {
			@Override
			public String getText(Object element) {
				return null;
			}

			@Override
			public Image getImage(Object element) {
				if (((Person) element).isMarried()) {
					return CHECKED;
				} else {
					return UNCHECKED;
				}
			}
		});

	}

	private TableViewerColumn createTableViewerColumn(String title, int bound) {
		final TableViewerColumn viewerColumn = new TableViewerColumn(viewer,
				SWT.NONE);
		final TableColumn column = viewerColumn.getColumn();
		column.setText(title);
		column.setWidth(bound);
		column.setResizable(true);
		column.setMoveable(true);
		return viewerColumn;

	}

	/**
	 * Passing the focus request to the viewer's control.
	 */
	public void setFocus() {
		viewer.getControl().setFocus();
	}
}

			

The method createColumns create the table columns, headers, sets the size of the columns and makes the columns re-sizable.

Run the example. The application should display a non-working search field and a table. We will later implement the functionality of the search field which will filter the entries of the table.