A DESCRIPTION OF THE REQUEST :
I think it would be useful to have more control over the sizing of a component.

Currently, there are three methods available...

setPreferredSize()
setMaximumSize()
setMinimumSize()

...that require you to set both dimensions at the same time.

It would be much more powerful if you could also set the dimensions independently using separate methods...

setPreferredWidth()
setPreferredHeight()
setMaximumWidth()
setMaximumHeight()
setMinimumWidth()
setMinimumHeight()


JUSTIFICATION :
In my application, I have the need to limit the width of a JTextField within a GridBagLayout to make sure that other dynamically added content will fit within my window.  I'd like to set ONLY the preferred width and allow the height to size itself as needed to adjust for larger fonts and other platform differences.
(Incident Review ID: 193678) 
======================================================================

N/A

Yep, this is especially important for text widgets where you want to force a
particular axis to a size.
  xxxxx@xxxxx   2003-08-12
Contribution forum : https://jdk-collaboration.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectForumMessageView?forumID=1463&messageID=14802
Posted Date : 2006-08-15 02:51:17.0

I think I have a workaround:
If you call setBounds() with your preferred width and some maximum height, I believe the preferred height will automatically be what you would expect. You could then use this value to set the min and max height if necessary.

I always use this workaround:

component.setPreferredSize( new Dimension( newWidth, component.getPreferredSize().height ) );

and yes, I would definitely appreciate a setPreferredWidth()-method

I agree, and also I think all the setXXXSize() methods should have a version that takes int,int instead of a Dimension.