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I have been informed that my question is actually a duplicate. Here is a link to the original question.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/52065145/131872

But I can streamline the answer a little bit.

In my case, I want to store both an `ImageIcon` and some text. So, the first thing I should do is create a data type that contains both of these elements.

```java
record TextIcon(String text, ImageIcon icon) {}
```

Next, I need to create a renderer that can render this data type. To do that, I will extend the [`DefaultTableCellRenderer`](https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/20/docs/api/java.desktop/javax/swing/table/DefaultTableCellRenderer.html).

```java
   
      final class MyTableCellRenderer extends DefaultTableCellRenderer
      {
      
         @Override
         public Component getTableCellRendererComponent(JTable table, Object value, boolean isSelected, boolean hasFocus, int row, int column)
         {
         
            super.getTableCellRendererComponent(table, value, isSelected, hasFocus, row, column);
         
            if (value instanceof TextIcon textIcon)
            {
            
               this.setText(textIcon.text());
               this.setIcon(textIcon.icon());
            
            }
         
            return this;
         
         }
      }
   
```

Doing it this way is nice because, now, I don't need to specify which column this applies to. I can apply this renderer to all of my columns, and then if they are not a `TextIcon`, they will just do the default rendering they would have gotten.

Alternatively, if I need to create another data type for my table, I can just add another if statement to this method. This strategy is a powerful way to add custom rendering to your table.

Now that I have my renderer, I will add it to all of my columns. Here is the easiest way to do it.

```java
table.setDefaultRenderer(Object.class, new MyTableCellRenderer());
```

I use `Object.class` because I want this renderer to be used for all columns. Since `Object` is a parent to all reference data types, then doing this essentially means that I am applying this renderer to all of my columns.

After that, I just continue as is, and things just work!