JavaFX TableView row highlighting sample using css lookup functions.

DebtCollectionTable.java

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.*;
import javafx.scene.control.*;
import javafx.scene.control.cell.PropertyValueFactory;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.util.Callback;

// demonstrates highlighting rows in a tableview based upon the data values in the rows.
public class DebtCollectionTable extends Application {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { launch(args); }
  public void start(final Stage stage) throws Exception {
    stage.setTitle("So called friends . . .");

    // create a table.
    TableView<Friend> table = new TableView(Friend.data);
    table.getColumns().addAll(makeStringColumn("Name", "name", 150), makeStringColumn("Owes Me", "owesMe", 300), makeBooleanColumn("Will Pay Up", "willPay", 150));
    table.setColumnResizePolicy(TableView.CONSTRAINED_RESIZE_POLICY);
    table.setPrefHeight(250);

    stage.setScene(new Scene(table));
    stage.getScene().getStylesheets().add(getClass().getResource("reaper.css").toExternalForm());
    stage.show();

    // highlight the table rows depending upon whether we expect to get paid.
    int i = 0;
    for (Node n: table.lookupAll("TableRow")) {
      if (n instanceof TableRow) {
        TableRow row = (TableRow) n;
        if (table.getItems().get(i).getWillPay()) {
          row.getStyleClass().add("willPayRow");
        } else {
          row.getStyleClass().add("wontPayRow");
        }
        i++;
        if (i == table.getItems().size())
          break;
      }
    }
  }

  private TableColumn<Friend, String> makeStringColumn(String columnName, String propertyName, int prefWidth) {
    TableColumn<Friend, String> column = new TableColumn<>(columnName);
    column.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<Friend, String>(propertyName));
    column.setCellFactory(new Callback<TableColumn<Friend, String>, TableCell<Friend, String>>() {
      @Override public TableCell<Friend, String> call(TableColumn<Friend, String> soCalledFriendStringTableColumn) {
        return new TableCell<Friend, String>() {
          @Override public void updateItem(String item, boolean empty) {
            super.updateItem(item, empty);
            if (item != null) {
              setText(item);
            }
          }
        };
      }
    });
    column.setPrefWidth(prefWidth);
    column.setSortable(false);
    return column;
  }
  
  private TableColumn<Friend, Boolean> makeBooleanColumn(String columnName, String propertyName, int prefWidth) {
    TableColumn<Friend, Boolean> column = new TableColumn<>(columnName);
    column.setCellValueFactory(new PropertyValueFactory<Friend, Boolean>(propertyName));
    column.setCellFactory(new Callback<TableColumn<Friend, Boolean>, TableCell<Friend, Boolean>>() {
      @Override public TableCell<Friend, Boolean> call(TableColumn<Friend, Boolean> soCalledFriendBooleanTableColumn) {
        return new TableCell<Friend, Boolean>() {
          @Override public void updateItem(final Boolean item, final boolean empty) {
            super.updateItem(item, empty);
            if (item != null) {
              setText(item.toString());
              this.getStyleClass().add(item ? "willPayCell" : "wontPayCell");
            }
          }
        };
      }
    });
    column.setPrefWidth(prefWidth);
    column.setSortable(false);
    return column;
  }
}

Friend.java

import javafx.collections.*;

/** Sample data for a table view */
public class Friend {
  final static public ObservableList data = FXCollections.observableArrayList(
    new Friend("George", "Movie Ticket", true),
    new Friend("Irene", "Pay Raise", false),
    new Friend("Ralph", "Return my Douglas Adams Books", false),
    new Friend("Otto", "Game of Golf", true),
    new Friend("Sally", "$12,045.98", false),
    new Friend("Antoine", "Latte", true)
  );

  final private String  name;
  final private String  owesMe;
  final private boolean willPay;
  public Friend(String name, String owesMe, boolean willPay) {
    this.name = name; this.owesMe = owesMe; this.willPay = willPay;
  }
  public String  getName()    { return name;    }
  public String  getOwesMe()  { return owesMe;  }
  public boolean getWillPay() { return willPay; }
}

reaper.css

/** file: reaper.css 
    place in same directory as DebtCollectionTable.java */
.root                             { -fx-font: 18px "Comic Sans MS";    }
.column-header-background         { -fx-background-color: azure;       }
.willPayRow                       { -fx-background-color: palegreen;   }
.wontPayRow                       { -fx-background-color: coral;       }
.willPayCell                      { -fx-background-color: forestgreen; }
.wontPayCell                      { -fx-background-color: firebrick;   }
.table-row-cell:empty             { -fx-background-color: cornsilk;    }
.table-row-cell:empty .table-cell { -fx-border-width:     0px;         }

A lookup won't work until the respective cells have been displayed on an active scene and a rendering pulse has occurred. The stage.show() method in the example ensures that this has occurred for the initial data display. If you dynamically modify the data after this, then you need to wait for a rendering pulse to have occurred and updated the scene. You can use an AnimationTimer for that, but it is pretty messy. In general, it is best to use css style sheets and style class manipulation for css tasks rather than lookups as those mechanisms don't suffer from timing related issues that you get for lookups. However, when I was coding this particular sample the only way I could get at the data involved at the time was to use a lookup.

Perhaps there is a better mechanism which would allow you to directly manipulate the style classes for the rows and hence avoid the lookup in the code.

An alternate solution is to provide your own row factory, where you set custom style classes within the rows returned by the factory - but I believe that is a bit complicated, though I haven't tried it. Maybe if you tried that approach you may find it easy.

I worked out a way to use the table row api to color rows in the table and avoid the lookup mechanism used in this gist.

I posted a new sample using the table row api rather than the lookup mechanism.

Using the table row api is a preferred solution to using a lookup.

Thank you so much! You helped me a lot.