JavaFX ListView programmatic selection scroll only when item is outside visible range

13 hours ago 1

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When selecting items programmatically in a ListView, I want the scroll to behave like native keyboard navigation — scroll only when the selected item is outside the visible area. Using listView.scrollTo(index) always repositions the view which feels unnatural. Here is my code:

public class Test1 extends Application { @Override public void start(Stage stage) { ListView<String> listView = new ListView<>(); listView.getItems().addAll( IntStream.rangeClosed(1, 30) .mapToObj(i -> "Item " + i) .collect(Collectors.toList()) ); listView.setPrefHeight(200); listView.getSelectionModel().select(0); Button up = new Button("Up"); Button down = new Button("Down"); up.setOnAction(e -> { int index = listView.getSelectionModel().getSelectedIndex(); if (index > 0) { listView.getSelectionModel().select(index - 1); scrollToIfNeeded(listView, index - 1); } }); down.setOnAction(e -> { int index = listView.getSelectionModel().getSelectedIndex(); if (index < listView.getItems().size() - 1) { listView.getSelectionModel().select(index + 1); scrollToIfNeeded(listView, index + 1); } }); HBox buttons = new HBox(10, up, down); VBox root = new VBox(10, listView, buttons); root.setPadding(new Insets(10)); stage.setScene(new Scene(root, 300, 300)); stage.show(); } private void scrollToIfNeeded(ListView<?> listView, int index) { VirtualFlow<?> flow = (VirtualFlow<?>) listView.lookup(".virtual-flow"); if (flow == null) { return; } var firstCell = flow.getFirstVisibleCell(); var lastCell = flow.getLastVisibleCell(); if (firstCell == null || lastCell == null) { return; } int first = firstCell.getIndex(); int last = lastCell.getBoundsInParent().getMaxY() > flow.getHeight() ? lastCell.getIndex() - 1 : lastCell.getIndex(); if (index < first) { listView.scrollTo(index); } else if (index >= last) { listView.scrollTo(index - (last - first)); } } public static void main(String[] args) { launch(args); } }

And this is the result: