Can you have row selection and cell selection at the same time in Java Swing?

I have a JTable and want to select the cell only when a cell in the first column of the table is clicked. When I click on a cell in any other column I want the entire row to be selected. How can I achieve this?

You need to implement the interface TableColumnModelListener and add it to the TableColumnModel of your JTable.

Here is an example.

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.Month;

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTable;
import javax.swing.ListSelectionModel;
import javax.swing.WindowConstants;
import javax.swing.event.ChangeEvent;
import javax.swing.event.ListSelectionEvent;
import javax.swing.event.TableColumnModelEvent;
import javax.swing.event.TableColumnModelListener;
import javax.swing.table.AbstractTableModel;
import javax.swing.table.TableColumnModel;
import javax.swing.table.TableModel;

public class TableSel implements Runnable, TableColumnModelListener {
    private JFrame  frame;
    private JTable  table;

    @Override // java.lang.Runnable
    public void run() {
        showGui();
    }

    @Override // javax.swing.event.TableColumnModelListener
    public void columnAdded(TableColumnModelEvent event) {
        // Do nothing.
    }

    @Override // javax.swing.event.TableColumnModelListener
    public void columnRemoved(TableColumnModelEvent event) {
        // Do nothing.
    }

    @Override // javax.swing.event.TableColumnModelListener
    public void columnMoved(TableColumnModelEvent event) {
        // Do nothing.
    }

    @Override // javax.swing.event.TableColumnModelListener
    public void columnMarginChanged(ChangeEvent event) {
        // Do nothing.
    }

    @Override // javax.swing.event.TableColumnModelListener
    public void columnSelectionChanged(ListSelectionEvent event) {
        if (!event.getValueIsAdjusting()) {
            int selectedColumn = table.getSelectedColumn();
            if (selectedColumn == 0) {
                table.setColumnSelectionAllowed(true);
            }
            else {
                table.setColumnSelectionAllowed(false);
            }
        }
    }

    private JScrollPane createTable() {
        TableModel model = new CustoMod();
        table = new JTable(model);
        table.setAutoResizeMode(JTable.AUTO_RESIZE_OFF);
        table.setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION);
        TableColumnModel tcm = table.getColumnModel();
        tcm.addColumnModelListener(this);
        JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(table);
        return scrollPane;
    }

    private void showGui() {
        frame = new JFrame("Table");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.add(createTable(), BorderLayout.CENTER);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setLocationByPlatform(true);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new TableSel());
    }
}

class CustoMod extends AbstractTableModel {
    private static final String[]  COLUMNS;
    private static final Object[][]  DATA;

    static {
        COLUMNS = new String[]{"Surname", "Name", "Games", "Goals", "Born"};
        DATA = new Object[][] {
            {"Rumney","Harold", 171, 28, LocalDate.of(1907, Month.MAY, 16)},
            {"Regan","Jack", 196, 3, LocalDate.of(1912, Month.SEPTEMBER, 12)},
            {"Coventry","Syd", 227, 62, LocalDate.of(1899, Month.JUNE, 13)},
            {"Picken","Billy", 212, 46, LocalDate.of(1956, Month.JUNE, 7)},
            {"Collier","Albert", 205, 54, LocalDate.of(1909, Month.JULY, 9)},
            {"Buckley","Nathan", 260, 263, LocalDate.of(1972, Month.JULY, 26)},
            {"Merrett","Thorold", 180, 148, LocalDate.of(1933, Month.SEPTEMBER, 30)},
            {"Rose","Bob", 152, 214, LocalDate.of(1928, Month.AUGUST, 07)},
            {"Millane","Darren", 147, 78, LocalDate.of(1965, Month.AUGUST, 9)},
            {"Fothergill","Des", 111, 337, LocalDate.of(1920, Month.JULY, 15)},
            {"Weideman","Murray", 180, 262, LocalDate.of(1936, Month.FEBRUARY, 16)},
            {"Lee","Dick", 230, 707, LocalDate.of(1899, Month.MARCH, 19)},
            {"Kyne","Phonse", 245, 237, LocalDate.of(1915, Month.OCTOBER, 29)},
            {"Coventry","Gordon", 306, 1299, LocalDate.of(1901, Month.SEPTEMBER, 25)},
            {"Daicos","Peter", 250, 549, LocalDate.of(1961, Month.SEPTEMBER, 20)},
            {"Thompson","Len", 268, 217, LocalDate.of(1947, Month.AUGUST, 27)},
            {"Tuddenham","Des", 182, 251, LocalDate.of(1943, Month.JANUARY, 29)},
            {"Collier","Harry", 253, 299, LocalDate.of(1907, Month.OCTOBER, 01)},
            {"Shaw","Tony", 313, 157, LocalDate.of(1960, Month.JULY, 23)},
            {"Richardson","Wayne", 277, 323, LocalDate.of(1946, Month.DECEMBER, 8)},
            {"Whelan","Marcus", 173, 31, LocalDate.of(1914, Month.JUNE, 27)},
            {"Brown","Gavin", 254, 195, LocalDate.of(1967, Month.SEPTEMBER, 25)},
        };
    }

    @Override
    public int getRowCount() {
        return DATA.length;
    }

    @Override
    public Class<?> getColumnClass(int columnIndex) {
        Class<?> theClass;
        switch (columnIndex) {
            case 0:
            case 1:
                theClass = String.class;
                break;
            case 2:
            case 3:
                theClass = Integer.class;
                break;
            case 4:
                theClass = LocalDate.class;
            default:
                theClass = Object.class;
        }
        return theClass;
    }

    @Override
    public int getColumnCount() {
        return COLUMNS.length;
    }

    @Override
    public String getColumnName(int column) {
        return COLUMNS[column];
    }

    @Override
    public Object getValueAt(int rowIndex, int columnIndex) {
        return DATA[rowIndex][columnIndex];
    }
}

I use a custom TableModel but it is not required in order to implement the behavior you desire.

The answer to your question is in the following parts of the above code.

1. Implement interface TableColumnModelListener

public class TableSel implements Runnable, TableColumnModelListener {

2. In the implementation of the interface, you only need to implement method columnSelectionChanged(ListSelectionEvent). The other methods can be empty.
3. Add your implementation to the JTable

table = new JTable(model);
TableColumnModel tcm = table.getColumnModel();
tcm.addColumnModelListener(this);

Note that I also set the selection mode to single selection.

table.setSelectionMode(ListSelectionModel.SINGLE_SELECTION);

A JTable has row selection and column selection. By default row selection is enabled and column selection is not. See methods setColumnSelectionAllowed() and setRowSelectionAllowed(). When both are set to true a single cell is selected. When only row selection is enabled, then selecting a cell selects the whole row containing that cell. Likewise when only column selection is allowed.

So basically you want to turn column selection on and off. If the selected column is the first column, then column selection needs to be enabled and for any other column it needs to be disabled.