1wxTextCtrl(3) Erlang Module Definition wxTextCtrl(3)
2
6 wxTextCtrl - Functions for wxTextCtrl class
7
9 A text control allows text to be displayed and edited.
10 It may be single line or multi-line. Notice that a lot of methods of
12 the text controls are found in the base wxTextEntry (not implemented in
13 wx) class which is a common base class for wxTextCtrl and other con‐
14 trols using a single line text entry field (e.g. wxComboBox).
15 Styles
17 This class supports the following styles:
19 wxTextCtrl Text Format
21 The multiline text controls always store the text as a sequence of
23 lines separated by '\n' characters, i.e. in the Unix text format even
24 on non-Unix platforms. This allows the user code to ignore the differ‐
25 ences between the platforms but at a price: the indices in the control
26 such as those returned by getInsertionPoint/1 or getSelection/1 can not
27 be used as indices into the string returned by getValue/1 as they're
28 going to be slightly off for platforms using "\\r\\n" as separator (as
29 Windows does).
30 Instead, if you need to obtain a substring between the 2 indices ob‐
32 tained from the control with the help of the functions mentioned above,
33 you should use getRange/3. And the indices themselves can only be
34 passed to other methods, for example setInsertionPoint/2 or setSelec‐
35 tion/3.
36 To summarize: never use the indices returned by (multiline) wxTextCtrl
38 as indices into the string it contains, but only as arguments to be
39 passed back to the other wxTextCtrl methods. This problem doesn't arise
40 for single-line platforms however where the indices in the control do
41 correspond to the positions in the value string.
42 wxTextCtrl Positions and Coordinates
44 It is possible to use either linear positions, i.e. roughly (but not
46 always exactly, as explained in the previous section) the index of the
47 character in the text contained in the control or X-Y coordinates, i.e.
48 column and line of the character when working with this class and it
49 provides the functions positionToXY/2 and xYToPosition/3 to convert be‐
50 tween the two.
51 Additionally, a position in the control can be converted to its coordi‐
53 nates in pixels using PositionToCoords() (not implemented in wx) which
54 can be useful to e.g. show a popup menu near the given character. And,
55 in the other direction, HitTest() (not implemented in wx) can be used
56 to find the character under, or near, the given pixel coordinates.
57 To be more precise, positions actually refer to the gaps between char‐
59 acters and not the characters themselves. Thus, position 0 is the one
60 before the very first character in the control and so is a valid posi‐
61 tion even when the control is empty. And if the control contains a sin‐
62 gle character, it has two valid positions: 0 before this character and
63 1 - after it. This, when the documentation of various functions men‐
64 tions "invalid position", it doesn't consider the position just after
65 the last character of the line to be invalid, only the positions beyond
66 that one (e.g. 2 and greater in the single character example) are actu‐
67 ally invalid.
68 wxTextCtrl Styles.
70 Multi-line text controls support styling, i.e. provide a possibility to
72 set colours and font for individual characters in it (note that under
73 Windows wxTE_RICH style is required for style support). To use the
74 styles you can either call setDefaultStyle/2 before inserting the text
75 or call setStyle/4 later to change the style of the text already in the
76 control (the first solution is much more efficient).
77 In either case, if the style doesn't specify some of the attributes
79 (for example you only want to set the text colour but without changing
80 the font nor the text background), the values of the default style will
81 be used for them. If there is no default style, the attributes of the
82 text control itself are used.
83 So the following code correctly describes what it does: the second call
85 to setDefaultStyle/2 doesn't change the text foreground colour (which
86 stays red) while the last one doesn't change the background colour
87 (which stays grey):
88 wxTextCtrl and C++ Streams
90 This class multiply-inherits from std::streambuf (except for some re‐
92 ally old compilers using non-standard iostream library), allowing code
93 such as the following:
94 Note that even if your build of wxWidgets doesn't support this (the
96 symbol wxHAS_TEXT_WINDOW_STREAM has value of 0 then) you can still use
97 wxTextCtrl itself in a stream-like manner:
98 However the possibility to create a std::ostream associated with wx‐
100 TextCtrl may be useful if you need to redirect the output of a function
101 taking a std::ostream as parameter to a text control.
102 Another commonly requested need is to redirect std::cout to the text
104 control. This may be done in the following way:
105 But wxWidgets provides a convenient class to make it even simpler so
107 instead you may just do
108 See wxStreamToTextRedirector (not implemented in wx) for more details.
110 Event Handling.
112 The following commands are processed by default event handlers in wx‐
114 TextCtrl: wxID_CUT, wxID_COPY, wxID_PASTE, wxID_UNDO, wxID_REDO. The
115 associated UI update events are also processed automatically, when the
116 control has the focus.
117 See: create/4, wxValidator (not implemented in wx)
119 This class is derived (and can use functions) from: wxControl wxWindow
121 wxEvtHandler
122 wxWidgets docs: wxTextCtrl
124
126 Event types emitted from this class: command_text_updated, com‐
127 mand_text_enter, text_maxlen
128
130 wxTextCtrl() = wx:wx_object()
131
133 new() -> wxTextCtrl()
134 Default ctor.
136 new(Parent, Id) -> wxTextCtrl()
138 Types:
140 Parent = wxWindow:wxWindow()
142 Id = integer()
143 new(Parent, Id, Options :: [Option]) -> wxTextCtrl()
145 Types:
147 Parent = wxWindow:wxWindow()
149 Id = integer()
150 Option =
151 {value, unicode:chardata()} |
152 {pos, {X :: integer(), Y :: integer()}} |
153 {size, {W :: integer(), H :: integer()}} |
154 {style, integer()} |
155 {validator, wx:wx_object()}
156 Constructor, creating and showing a text control.
158 Remark: The horizontal scrollbar (wxHSCROLL style flag) will
160 only be created for multi-line text controls. Without a horizon‐
161 tal scrollbar, text lines that don't fit in the control's size
162 will be wrapped (but no newline character is inserted). Single
163 line controls don't have a horizontal scrollbar, the text is au‐
164 tomatically scrolled so that the insertion point is always visi‐
165 ble.
166 See: create/4, wxValidator (not implemented in wx)
168 destroy(This :: wxTextCtrl()) -> ok
170 Destructor, destroying the text control.
172 appendText(This, Text) -> ok
174 Types:
176 This = wxTextCtrl()
178 Text = unicode:chardata()
179 Appends the text to the end of the text control.
181 Remark: After the text is appended, the insertion point will be
183 at the end of the text control. If this behaviour is not de‐
184 sired, the programmer should use getInsertionPoint/1 and
185 setInsertionPoint/2.
186 See: writeText/2
188 canCopy(This) -> boolean()
190 Types:
192 This = wxTextCtrl()
194 Returns true if the selection can be copied to the clipboard.
196 canCut(This) -> boolean()
198 Types:
200 This = wxTextCtrl()
202 Returns true if the selection can be cut to the clipboard.
204 canPaste(This) -> boolean()
206 Types:
208 This = wxTextCtrl()
210 Returns true if the contents of the clipboard can be pasted into
212 the text control.
213 On some platforms (Motif, GTK) this is an approximation and re‐
215 turns true if the control is editable, false otherwise.
216 canRedo(This) -> boolean()
218 Types:
220 This = wxTextCtrl()
222 Returns true if there is a redo facility available and the last
224 operation can be redone.
225 canUndo(This) -> boolean()
227 Types:
229 This = wxTextCtrl()
231 Returns true if there is an undo facility available and the last
233 operation can be undone.
234 clear(This) -> ok
236 Types:
238 This = wxTextCtrl()
240 Clears the text in the control.
242 Note that this function will generate a wxEVT_TEXT event, i.e.
244 its effect is identical to calling SetValue("").
245 copy(This) -> ok
247 Types:
249 This = wxTextCtrl()
251 Copies the selected text to the clipboard.
253 create(This, Parent, Id) -> boolean()
255 Types:
257 This = wxTextCtrl()
259 Parent = wxWindow:wxWindow()
260 Id = integer()
261 create(This, Parent, Id, Options :: [Option]) -> boolean()
263 Types:
265 This = wxTextCtrl()
267 Parent = wxWindow:wxWindow()
268 Id = integer()
269 Option =
270 {value, unicode:chardata()} |
271 {pos, {X :: integer(), Y :: integer()}} |
272 {size, {W :: integer(), H :: integer()}} |
273 {style, integer()} |
274 {validator, wx:wx_object()}
275 Creates the text control for two-step construction.
277 This method should be called if the default constructor was used
279 for the control creation. Its parameters have the same meaning
280 as for the non-default constructor.
281 cut(This) -> ok
283 Types:
285 This = wxTextCtrl()
287 Copies the selected text to the clipboard and removes it from
289 the control.
290 discardEdits(This) -> ok
292 Types:
294 This = wxTextCtrl()
296 Resets the internal modified flag as if the current changes had
298 been saved.
299 changeValue(This, Value) -> ok
301 Types:
303 This = wxTextCtrl()
305 Value = unicode:chardata()
306 Sets the new text control value.
308 It also marks the control as not-modified which means that Is‐
310 Modified() would return false immediately after the call to
311 changeValue/2.
312 The insertion point is set to the start of the control (i.e. po‐
314 sition 0) by this function.
315 This functions does not generate the wxEVT_TEXT event but other‐
317 wise is identical to setValue/2.
318 See overview_events_prog for more information.
320 Since: 2.7.1
322 emulateKeyPress(This, Event) -> boolean()
324 Types:
326 This = wxTextCtrl()
328 Event = wxKeyEvent:wxKeyEvent()
329 This function inserts into the control the character which would
331 have been inserted if the given key event had occurred in the
332 text control.
333 The event object should be the same as the one passed to
335 EVT_KEY_DOWN handler previously by wxWidgets. Please note that
336 this function doesn't currently work correctly for all keys un‐
337 der any platform but MSW.
338 Return: true if the event resulted in a change to the control,
340 false otherwise.
341 getDefaultStyle(This) -> wxTextAttr:wxTextAttr()
343 Types:
345 This = wxTextCtrl()
347 Returns the style currently used for the new text.
349 See: setDefaultStyle/2
351 getInsertionPoint(This) -> integer()
353 Types:
355 This = wxTextCtrl()
357 Returns the insertion point, or cursor, position.
359 This is defined as the zero based index of the character posi‐
361 tion to the right of the insertion point. For example, if the
362 insertion point is at the end of the single-line text control,
363 it is equal to getLastPosition/1.
364 Notice that insertion position is, in general, different from
366 the index of the character the cursor position at in the string
367 returned by getValue/1. While this is always the case for the
368 single line controls, multi-line controls can use two characters
369 "\\r\\n" as line separator (this is notably the case under MSW)
370 meaning that indices in the control and its string value are
371 offset by 1 for every line.
372 Hence to correctly get the character at the current cursor posi‐
374 tion, taking into account that there can be none if the cursor
375 is at the end of the string, you could do the following:
376 getLastPosition(This) -> integer()
378 Types:
380 This = wxTextCtrl()
382 Returns the zero based index of the last position in the text
384 control, which is equal to the number of characters in the con‐
385 trol.
386 getLineLength(This, LineNo) -> integer()
388 Types:
390 This = wxTextCtrl()
392 LineNo = integer()
393 Gets the length of the specified line, not including any trail‐
395 ing newline character(s).
396 Return: The length of the line, or -1 if lineNo was invalid.
398 getLineText(This, LineNo) -> unicode:charlist()
400 Types:
402 This = wxTextCtrl()
404 LineNo = integer()
405 Returns the contents of a given line in the text control, not
407 including any trailing newline character(s).
408 Return: The contents of the line.
410 getNumberOfLines(This) -> integer()
412 Types:
414 This = wxTextCtrl()
416 Returns the number of lines in the text control buffer.
418 The returned number is the number of logical lines, i.e. just
420 the count of the number of newline characters in the control +
421 1, for wxGTK and wxOSX/Cocoa ports while it is the number of
422 physical lines, i.e. the count of lines actually shown in the
423 control, in wxMSW. Because of this discrepancy, it is not recom‐
424 mended to use this function.
425 Remark: Note that even empty text controls have one line (where
427 the insertion point is), so getNumberOfLines/1 never returns 0.
428 getRange(This, From, To) -> unicode:charlist()
430 Types:
432 This = wxTextCtrl()
434 From = To = integer()
435 Returns the string containing the text starting in the positions
437 from and up to to in the control.
438 The positions must have been returned by another wxTextCtrl
440 method. Please note that the positions in a multiline wxTextCtrl
441 do not correspond to the indices in the string returned by get‐
442 Value/1 because of the different new line representations (CR or
443 CR LF) and so this method should be used to obtain the correct
444 results instead of extracting parts of the entire value. It may
445 also be more efficient, especially if the control contains a lot
446 of data.
447 getSelection(This) -> {From :: integer(), To :: integer()}
449 Types:
451 This = wxTextCtrl()
453 Gets the current selection span.
455 If the returned values are equal, there was no selection. Please
457 note that the indices returned may be used with the other wx‐
458 TextCtrl methods but don't necessarily represent the correct in‐
459 dices into the string returned by getValue/1 for multiline con‐
460 trols under Windows (at least,) you should use getStringSelec‐
461 tion/1 to get the selected text.
462 getStringSelection(This) -> unicode:charlist()
464 Types:
466 This = wxTextCtrl()
468 Gets the text currently selected in the control.
470 If there is no selection, the returned string is empty.
472 getStyle(This, Position, Style) -> boolean()
474 Types:
476 This = wxTextCtrl()
478 Position = integer()
479 Style = wxTextAttr:wxTextAttr()
480 Returns the style at this position in the text control.
482 Not all platforms support this function.
484 Return: true on success, false if an error occurred (this may
486 also mean that the styles are not supported under this plat‐
487 form).
488 See: setStyle/4, wxTextAttr
490 getValue(This) -> unicode:charlist()
492 Types:
494 This = wxTextCtrl()
496 Gets the contents of the control.
498 Notice that for a multiline text control, the lines will be sep‐
500 arated by (Unix-style) \n characters, even under Windows where
501 they are separated by a \r\n sequence in the native control.
502 isEditable(This) -> boolean()
504 Types:
506 This = wxTextCtrl()
508 Returns true if the controls contents may be edited by user
510 (note that it always can be changed by the program).
511 In other words, this functions returns true if the control
513 hasn't been put in read-only mode by a previous call to setEd‐
514 itable/2.
515 isModified(This) -> boolean()
517 Types:
519 This = wxTextCtrl()
521 Returns true if the text has been modified by user.
523 Note that calling setValue/2 doesn't make the control modified.
525 See: markDirty/1
527 isMultiLine(This) -> boolean()
529 Types:
531 This = wxTextCtrl()
533 Returns true if this is a multi line edit control and false oth‐
535 erwise.
536 See: isSingleLine/1
538 isSingleLine(This) -> boolean()
540 Types:
542 This = wxTextCtrl()
544 Returns true if this is a single line edit control and false
546 otherwise.
547 See: isSingleLine/1, isMultiLine/1
549 loadFile(This, Filename) -> boolean()
551 Types:
553 This = wxTextCtrl()
555 Filename = unicode:chardata()
556 loadFile(This, Filename, Options :: [Option]) -> boolean()
558 Types:
560 This = wxTextCtrl()
562 Filename = unicode:chardata()
563 Option = {fileType, integer()}
564 Loads and displays the named file, if it exists.
566 Return: true if successful, false otherwise.
568 markDirty(This) -> ok
570 Types:
572 This = wxTextCtrl()
574 Mark text as modified (dirty).
576 See: isModified/1
578 paste(This) -> ok
580 Types:
582 This = wxTextCtrl()
584 Pastes text from the clipboard to the text item.
586 positionToXY(This, Pos) -> Result
588 Types:
590 Result = {Res :: boolean(), X :: integer(), Y :: integer()}
592 This = wxTextCtrl()
593 Pos = integer()
594 Converts given position to a zero-based column, line number
596 pair.
597 Return: true on success, false on failure (most likely due to a
599 too large position parameter).
600 See: xYToPosition/3
602 redo(This) -> ok
604 Types:
606 This = wxTextCtrl()
608 If there is a redo facility and the last operation can be re‐
610 done, redoes the last operation.
611 Does nothing if there is no redo facility.
613 remove(This, From, To) -> ok
615 Types:
617 This = wxTextCtrl()
619 From = To = integer()
620 Removes the text starting at the first given position up to (but
622 not including) the character at the last position.
623 This function puts the current insertion point position at to as
625 a side effect.
626 replace(This, From, To, Value) -> ok
628 Types:
630 This = wxTextCtrl()
632 From = To = integer()
633 Value = unicode:chardata()
634 Replaces the text starting at the first position up to (but not
636 including) the character at the last position with the given
637 text.
638 This function puts the current insertion point position at to as
640 a side effect.
641 saveFile(This) -> boolean()
643 Types:
645 This = wxTextCtrl()
647 saveFile(This, Options :: [Option]) -> boolean()
649 Types:
651 This = wxTextCtrl()
653 Option = {file, unicode:chardata()} | {fileType, integer()}
654 Saves the contents of the control in a text file.
656 Return: true if the operation was successful, false otherwise.
658 setDefaultStyle(This, Style) -> boolean()
660 Types:
662 This = wxTextCtrl()
664 Style = wxTextAttr:wxTextAttr()
665 Changes the default style to use for the new text which is going
667 to be added to the control.
668 This applies both to the text added programmatically using
670 writeText/2 or appendText/2 and to the text entered by the user
671 interactively.
672 If either of the font, foreground, or background colour is not
674 set in style, the values of the previous default style are used
675 for them. If the previous default style didn't set them neither,
676 the global font or colours of the text control itself are used
677 as fall back.
678 However if the style parameter is the default wxTextAttr, then
680 the default style is just reset (instead of being combined with
681 the new style which wouldn't change it at all).
682 Return: true on success, false if an error occurred (this may
684 also mean that the styles are not supported under this plat‐
685 form).
686 See: getDefaultStyle/1
688 setEditable(This, Editable) -> ok
690 Types:
692 This = wxTextCtrl()
694 Editable = boolean()
695 Makes the text item editable or read-only, overriding the
697 wxTE_READONLY flag.
698 See: isEditable/1
700 setInsertionPoint(This, Pos) -> ok
702 Types:
704 This = wxTextCtrl()
706 Pos = integer()
707 Sets the insertion point at the given position.
709 setInsertionPointEnd(This) -> ok
711 Types:
713 This = wxTextCtrl()
715 Sets the insertion point at the end of the text control.
717 This is equivalent to calling setInsertionPoint/2 with getLast‐
719 Position/1 argument.
720 setMaxLength(This, Len) -> ok
722 Types:
724 This = wxTextCtrl()
726 Len = integer()
727 This function sets the maximum number of characters the user can
729 enter into the control.
730 In other words, it allows limiting the text value length to len
732 not counting the terminating NUL character.
733 If len is 0, the previously set max length limit, if any, is
735 discarded and the user may enter as much text as the underlying
736 native text control widget supports (typically at least 32Kb).
737 If the user tries to enter more characters into the text control
738 when it already is filled up to the maximal length, a wx‐
739 EVT_TEXT_MAXLEN event is sent to notify the program about it
740 (giving it the possibility to show an explanatory message, for
741 example) and the extra input is discarded.
742 Note that in wxGTK this function may only be used with single
744 line text controls.
745 setSelection(This, From, To) -> ok
747 Types:
749 This = wxTextCtrl()
751 From = To = integer()
752 Selects the text starting at the first position up to (but not
754 including) the character at the last position.
755 If both parameters are equal to -1 all text in the control is
757 selected.
758 Notice that the insertion point will be moved to from by this
760 function.
761 See: SelectAll() (not implemented in wx)
763 setStyle(This, Start, End, Style) -> boolean()
765 Types:
767 This = wxTextCtrl()
769 Start = End = integer()
770 Style = wxTextAttr:wxTextAttr()
771 Changes the style of the given range.
773 If any attribute within style is not set, the corresponding at‐
775 tribute from getDefaultStyle/1 is used.
776 Return: true on success, false if an error occurred (this may
778 also mean that the styles are not supported under this plat‐
779 form).
780 See: getStyle/3, wxTextAttr
782 setValue(This, Value) -> ok
784 Types:
786 This = wxTextCtrl()
788 Value = unicode:chardata()
789 Sets the new text control value.
791 It also marks the control as not-modified which means that Is‐
793 Modified() would return false immediately after the call to set‐
794 Value/2.
795 The insertion point is set to the start of the control (i.e. po‐
797 sition 0) by this function unless the control value doesn't
798 change at all, in which case the insertion point is left at its
799 original position.
800 Note that, unlike most other functions changing the controls
802 values, this function generates a wxEVT_TEXT event. To avoid
803 this you can use changeValue/2 instead.
804 showPosition(This, Pos) -> ok
806 Types:
808 This = wxTextCtrl()
810 Pos = integer()
811 Makes the line containing the given position visible.
813 undo(This) -> ok
815 Types:
817 This = wxTextCtrl()
819 If there is an undo facility and the last operation can be un‐
821 done, undoes the last operation.
822 Does nothing if there is no undo facility.
824 writeText(This, Text) -> ok
826 Types:
828 This = wxTextCtrl()
830 Text = unicode:chardata()
831 Writes the text into the text control at the current insertion
833 position.
834 Remark: Newlines in the text string are the only control charac‐
836 ters allowed, and they will cause appropriate line breaks. See
837 operator<<() and appendText/2 for more convenient ways of writ‐
838 ing to the window. After the write operation, the insertion
839 point will be at the end of the inserted text, so subsequent
840 write operations will be appended. To append text after the user
841 may have interacted with the control, call setInsertionPoin‐
842 tEnd/1 before writing.
843 xYToPosition(This, X, Y) -> integer()
845 Types:
847 This = wxTextCtrl()
849 X = Y = integer()
850 Converts the given zero based column and line number to a posi‐
852 tion.
853 Return: The position value, or -1 if x or y was invalid.
855wxWidgets team. wx 2.1 wxTextCtrl(3)