在sun的官方网站上对editor和renderer的解释是如下：
renderer：
instead, a single cell renderer is generally used to draw all of the cells that contain the same type of data. you can think of the renderer as a configurable ink stamp that the table uses to stamp appropriately formatted data onto each cell. when the user starts to edit a cell's data, a cell editor takes over the cell, controlling the cell's editing behavior.
个人理解就是对于不同的数据显示不同的格式，相当于在mvc中根据不同的model选择不同的view，renderer就是给你这个选择的权利。默认的几种数据的显示方式如下：

double, float — same as number, but the object-to-text translation is performed by a numberformat instance (using the default number format for the current locale).

date — rendered by a label, with the object-to-text translation performed by a dateformat instance (using a short style for the date and time).

如果你有特殊的数据，想有特殊的显示方式，可以自己设定cell的renderer如下：
tablecellrenderer weirdrenderer = new weirdrenderer();
table = new jtable(...) {
    public tablecellrenderer getcellrenderer(int row, int column) {
        if ((row == 0) && (column == 0)) {
            return weirdrenderer;
        }
        // else...
        return super.getcellrenderer(row, column);
    }
};
editor是用于编辑数据，但是renderer是用于显示数据。
关于editor，和renderer遵守相同的法则