1ttk::entry(n) Tk Themed Widget ttk::entry(n)
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8 ttk::entry - Editable text field widget
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11 ttk::entry pathName ?options?
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15 An ttk::entry widget displays a one-line text string and allows that
16 string to be edited by the user. The value of the string may be linked
17 to a Tcl variable with the -textvariable option. Entry widgets support
18 horizontal scrolling with the standard -xscrollcommand option and xview
19 widget command.
20
22 -class -cursor -style
23 -takefocus -xscrollcommand
24 See the ttk_widget manual entry for details on the standard options.
26
28 [-exportselection exportSelection] A boolean value specifying whether
29 or not a selection in the widget should be linked to the X selection.
30 If the selection is exported, then selecting in the widget deselects
31 the current X selection, selecting outside the widget deselects any
32 widget selection, and the widget will respond to selection retrieval
33 requests when it has a selection. [-invalidcommand invalidCommand] A
34 script template to evaluate whenever the validateCommand returns 0.
35 See VALIDATION below for more information. [-justify justify] Speci‐
36 fies how the text is aligned within the entry widget. One of left,
37 center, or right. [-show show] If this option is specified, then the
38 true contents of the entry are not displayed in the window. Instead,
39 each character in the entry's value will be displayed as the first
40 character in the value of this option, such as “*” or a bullet. This
41 is useful, for example, if the entry is to be used to enter a password.
42 If characters in the entry are selected and copied elsewhere, the
43 information copied will be what is displayed, not the true contents of
44 the entry. [-state state] Compatibility option; see ttk::widget(n) for
45 details. Specifies one of three states for the entry, normal, dis‐
46 abled, or readonly. See WIDGET STATES, below. [-textvari‐
47 able textVariable] Specifies the name of a global variable whose value
48 is linked to the entry widget's contents. Whenever the variable
49 changes value, the widget's contents are updated, and vice versa.
50 [-validate validate] Specifies the mode in which validation should
51 operate: none, focus, focusin, focusout, key, or all. Default is none,
52 meaning that validation is disabled. See VALIDATION below. [-vali‐
53 datecommand validateCommand] A script template to evaluate whenever
54 validation is triggered. If set to the empty string (the default),
55 validation is disabled. The script must return a boolean value. See
56 VALIDATION below. [-width width] Specifies an integer value indicating
57 the desired width of the entry window, in average-size characters of
58 the widget's font.
59
61 A portion of the entry may be selected as described below. If an entry
62 is exporting its selection (see the exportSelection option), then it
63 will observe the standard X11 protocols for handling the selection;
64 entry selections are available as type STRING. Entries also observe
65 the standard Tk rules for dealing with the input focus. When an entry
66 has the input focus it displays an insert cursor to indicate where new
67 characters will be inserted.
68 Entries are capable of displaying strings that are too long to fit
70 entirely within the widget's window. In this case, only a portion of
71 the string will be displayed; commands described below may be used to
72 change the view in the window. Entries use the standard xScrollCommand
73 mechanism for interacting with scrollbars (see the description of the
74 xScrollCommand option for details).
75
77 Many of the entry widget commands take one or more indices as argu‐
78 ments. An index specifies a particular character in the entry's
79 string, in any of the following ways:
80 number Specifies the character as a numerical index, where 0 corre‐
82 sponds to the first character in the string.
83 @number
85 In this form, number is treated as an x-coordinate in the
86 entry's window; the character spanning that x-coordinate is
87 used. For example, “@0” indicates the left-most character in
88 the window.
89 end Indicates the character just after the last one in the entry's
91 string. This is equivalent to specifying a numerical index
92 equal to the length of the entry's string.
93 insert Indicates the character adjacent to and immediately following
95 the insert cursor.
96 sel.first
98 Indicates the first character in the selection. It is an error
99 to use this form if the selection is not in the entry window.
100 sel.last
102 Indicates the character just after the last one in the selec‐
103 tion. It is an error to use this form if the selection is not
104 in the entry window.
105 Abbreviations may be used for any of the forms above, e.g. “e” or
107 “sel.l”. In general, out-of-range indices are automatically rounded to
108 the nearest legal value.
109
111 The following subcommands are possible for entry widgets:
112 pathName bbox index
114 Returns a list of four numbers describing the bounding box of
115 the character given by index. The first two elements of the
116 list give the x and y coordinates of the upper-left corner of
117 the screen area covered by the character (in pixels relative to
118 the widget) and the last two elements give the width and height
119 of the character, in pixels. The bounding box may refer to a
120 region outside the visible area of the window.
121 pathName delete first ?last?
123 Delete one or more elements of the entry. First is the index of
124 the first character to delete, and last is the index of the
125 character just after the last one to delete. If last is not
126 specified it defaults to first+1, i.e. a single character is
127 deleted. This command returns the empty string.
128 pathName get
130 Returns the entry's string.
131 pathName icursor index
133 Arrange for the insert cursor to be displayed just before the
134 character given by index. Returns the empty string.
135 pathName index index
137 Returns the numerical index corresponding to index.
138 pathName insert index string
140 Insert string just before the character indicated by index.
141 Returns the empty string.
142 pathName selection option arg
144 This command is used to adjust the selection within an entry.
145 It has several forms, depending on option:
146 pathName selection clear
148 Clear the selection if it is currently in this widget.
149 If the selection is not in this widget then the command
150 has no effect. Returns the empty string.
151 pathName selection present
153 Returns 1 if there is are characters selected in the
154 entry, 0 if nothing is selected.
155 pathName selection range start end
157 Sets the selection to include the characters starting
158 with the one indexed by start and ending with the one
159 just before end. If end refers to the same character as
160 start or an earlier one, then the entry's selection is
161 cleared.
162 pathName validate
164 Force revalidation, independent of the conditions specified by
165 the -validate option. Returns 0 if validation fails, 1 if it
166 succeeds. Sets or clears the invalid state accordingly. See
167 VALIDATION below for more details.
168 pathName xview args
170 This command is used to query and change the horizontal position
171 of the text in the widget's window. It can take any of the fol‐
172 lowing forms:
173 pathName xview
175 Returns a list containing two elements. Each element is
176 a real fraction between 0 and 1; together they describe
177 the horizontal span that is visible in the window. For
178 example, if the first element is .2 and the second ele‐
179 ment is .6, 20% of the entry's text is off-screen to the
180 left, the middle 40% is visible in the window, and 40% of
181 the text is off-screen to the right. These are the same
182 values passed to scrollbars via the -xscrollcommand
183 option.
184 pathName xview index
186 Adjusts the view in the window so that the character
187 given by index is displayed at the left edge of the win‐
188 dow.
189 pathName xview moveto fraction
191 Adjusts the view in the window so that the character
192 fraction of the way through the text appears at the left
193 edge of the window. Fraction must be a fraction between
194 0 and 1.
195 pathName xview scroll number what
197 This command shifts the view in the window left or right
198 according to number and what. Number must be an integer.
199 What must be either units or pages. If what is units,
200 the view adjusts left or right by number average-width
201 characters on the display; if it is pages then the view
202 adjusts by number screenfuls. If number is negative then
203 characters farther to the left become visible; if it is
204 positive then characters farther to the right become vis‐
205 ible.
206 The entry widget also supports the following generic ttk::widget widget
208 subcommands (see ttk::widget(n) for details):
209 cget configure identify
210 instate state
211
213 The -validate, -validatecommand, and -invalidcommand options are used
214 to enable entry widget validation.
215 VALIDATION MODES
217 There are two main validation modes: prevalidation, in which the -vali‐
218 datecommand is evaluated prior to each edit and the return value is
219 used to determine whether to accept or reject the change; and revalida‐
220 tion, in which the -validatecommand is evaluated to determine whether
221 the current value is valid.
222 The -validate option determines when validation occurs; it may be set
224 to any of the following values:
225 none Default. This means validation will only occur when
227 specifically requested by the validate widget command.
228 key The entry will be prevalidated prior to each edit
230 (specifically, whenever the insert or delete widget com‐
231 mands are called). If prevalidation fails, the edit is
232 rejected.
233 focus The entry is revalidated when the entry receives or loses
235 focus.
236 focusin
238 The entry is revalidated when the entry receives focus.
239 focusout
241 The entry is revalidated when the entry loses focus.
242 all Validation is performed for all above conditions.
244 The -invalidcommand is evaluated whenever the -validatecommand returns
246 a false value.
247 The -validatecommand and -invalidcommand may modify the entry widget's
249 value via the widget insert or delete commands, or by setting the
250 linked -textvariable. If either does so during prevalidation, then the
251 edit is rejected regardless of the value returned by the -validatecom‐
252 mand.
253 If -validatecommand is empty (the default), validation always succeeds.
255 VALIDATION SCRIPT SUBSTITUTIONS
257 It is possible to perform percent substitutions on the -validatecommand
258 and -invalidcommand, just as in a bind script. The following substitu‐
259 tions are recognized:
260 %d Type of action: 1 for insert prevalidation, 0 for delete
262 prevalidation, or -1 for revalidation.
263 %i Index of character string to be inserted/deleted, if any,
265 otherwise -1.
266 %P In prevalidation, the new value of the entry if the edit
268 is accepted. In revalidation, the current value of the
269 entry.
270 %s The current value of entry prior to editing.
272 %S The text string being inserted/deleted, if any, {} other‐
274 wise.
275 %v The current value of the -validate option.
277 %V The validation condition that triggered the callback
279 (key, focusin, focusout, or forced).
280 %W The name of the entry widget.
282 DIFFERENCES FROM TK ENTRY WIDGET VALIDATION
284 The standard Tk entry widget automatically disables validation (by set‐
285 ting -validate to none) if the -validatecommand or -invalidcommand mod‐
286 ifies the entry's value. The Tk themed entry widget only disables val‐
287 idation if one of the validation scripts raises an error, or if -vali‐
288 datecommand does not return a valid boolean value. (Thus, it is not
289 necessary to re-enable validation after modifying the entry value in a
290 validation script).
291 In addition, the standard entry widget invokes validation whenever the
293 linked -textvariable is modified; the Tk themed entry widget does not.
294
296 The entry widget's default bindings enable the following behavior. In
297 the descriptions below, “word” refers to a contiguous group of letters,
298 digits, or “_” characters, or any single character other than these.
299 · Clicking mouse button 1 positions the insert cursor just before the
301 character underneath the mouse cursor, sets the input focus to this
302 widget, and clears any selection in the widget. Dragging with
303 mouse button 1 down strokes out a selection between the insert cur‐
304 sor and the character under the mouse.
305 · Double-clicking with mouse button 1 selects the word under the
307 mouse and positions the insert cursor at the end of the word.
308 Dragging after a double click strokes out a selection consisting of
309 whole words.
310 · Triple-clicking with mouse button 1 selects all of the text in the
312 entry and positions the insert cursor at the end of the line.
313 · The ends of the selection can be adjusted by dragging with mouse
315 button 1 while the Shift key is down. If the button is double-
316 clicked before dragging then the selection will be adjusted in
317 units of whole words.
318 · Clicking mouse button 1 with the Control key down will position the
320 insert cursor in the entry without affecting the selection.
321 · If any normal printing characters are typed in an entry, they are
323 inserted at the point of the insert cursor.
324 · The view in the entry can be adjusted by dragging with mouse button
326 2. If mouse button 2 is clicked without moving the mouse, the
327 selection is copied into the entry at the position of the mouse
328 cursor.
329 · If the mouse is dragged out of the entry on the left or right sides
331 while button 1 is pressed, the entry will automatically scroll to
332 make more text visible (if there is more text off-screen on the
333 side where the mouse left the window).
334 · The Left and Right keys move the insert cursor one character to the
336 left or right; they also clear any selection in the entry. If
337 Left or Right is typed with the Shift key down, then the insertion
338 cursor moves and the selection is extended to include the new char‐
339 acter. Control-Left and Control-Right move the insert cursor by
340 words, and Control-Shift-Left and Control-Shift-Right move the
341 insert cursor by words and also extend the selection. Control-b
342 and Control-f behave the same as Left and Right, respectively.
343 · The Home key and Control-a move the insert cursor to the beginning
345 of the entry and clear any selection in the entry. Shift-Home
346 moves the insert cursor to the beginning of the entry and extends
347 the selection to that point.
348 · The End key and Control-e move the insert cursor to the end of the
350 entry and clear any selection in the entry. Shift-End moves the
351 cursor to the end and extends the selection to that point.
352 · Control-/ selects all the text in the entry.
354 · Control-\ clears any selection in the entry.
356 · The standard Tk <<Cut>>, <<Copy>>, <<Paste>>, and <<Clear>> virtual
358 events operate on the selection in the expected manner.
359 · The Delete key deletes the selection, if there is one in the entry.
361 If there is no selection, it deletes the character to the right of
362 the insert cursor.
363 · The BackSpace key and Control-h delete the selection, if there is
365 one in the entry. If there is no selection, it deletes the charac‐
366 ter to the left of the insert cursor.
367 · Control-d deletes the character to the right of the insert cursor.
369 · Control-k deletes all the characters to the right of the insertion
371 cursor.
372
374 In the disabled state, the entry cannot be edited and the text cannot
375 be selected. In the readonly state, no insert cursor is displayed and
376 the entry cannot be edited (specifically: the insert and delete com‐
377 mands have no effect). The disabled state is the same as readonly, and
378 in addition text cannot be selected.
379 Note that changes to the linked -textvariable will still be reflected
381 in the entry, even if it is disabled or readonly.
382 Typically, the text is “grayed-out” in the disabled state, and a dif‐
384 ferent background is used in the readonly state.
385 The entry widget sets the invalid state if revalidation fails, and
387 clears it whenever validation succeeds.
388
390 ttk::widget(n), entry(n)
391
393 entry, widget, text field
394Tk 8.5 ttk::entry(n)