JavaFX8: Strings are not displayed in TableView - tableview

Question

I have the following problem: I try to populate a tableview in JavaFX8 with an array. So, I try to add the array as a row to the tableview. I run this code in the Controller of my FXML file, when enter is pressed. This is the code:
String[] words = {"ace", "boom", "crew", "dog", "eon"};
List<String> tableViewRow = Arrays.asList(words);
ObservableList<String> row = FXCollections.observableList(tableViewRow); //observableArrayList also doesn't work
transactionOverview.getItems().add(row);
transactionOverview is my tableview, and the String[] is just a placeholder for my actual String[]. I tried to create my tableview in multiple ways:
public TableView<ObservableList<String>> transactionOverview;
public TableView<ObservableList> transactionOverview;
public TableView transactionOverview;
None of them works.
The problem is that tableview gets an extra row, which I can select, but there are now string values visible in the tableview. I don't know if they are added.
My code is based on Javafx 2.2 - Dynamic table view - table data (answer from Jitendra Pareek), and I have chosen for this solution because I don't want to use an extra class to populate my tableview.
Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

Since (according to your comments) you have a fixed number of columns, I would strongly recommend creating a model class to hold the items in each row of the table. You can then follow the standard patterns and it should work readily.
However you manage a TableView, you must provide a cell value factory for each column. This is essentially a function that specifies how to get the value for a cell from the item in the row. If your use a model class that uses JavaFX properties, then you can use a PropertyValueFactory (though Java 8 lambda expressions make that pretty much redundant). Otherwise, you need to implement a callback.
If you really want to use a list structure to hold the data for each row, and assuming your table and table columns are all defined in the FXML file, you would do something like this in your controller class:
#FXML
private TableView<ObservableList<String>> transactionOverview ;
// ...
public void initialize() {
for (int i=0; i < transactionOverview.getColumns().size(); i++) {
TableColumn<ObservableList<String>, String> col = transactionOverview.getColumns().get(i);
final int colIndex = i ;
col.setCellValueFactory( (CellDataFeatures cellData) -> {
ObservableList<String> rowData = cellData.getValue();
return new ReadOnlyStringWrapper(rowData.get(colIndex));
});
}
// ...
}