1grid(n) Tk Built-In Commands grid(n)
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8 grid - Geometry manager that arranges widgets in a grid
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11 grid option arg ?arg ...?
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15 The grid command is used to communicate with the grid geometry manager
16 that arranges widgets in rows and columns inside of another window,
17 called the geometry container (or container window). The grid command
18 can have any of several forms, depending on the option argument:
19 grid window ?window ...? ?options?
21 If the first argument to grid is suitable as the first window
22 argument to grid configure, either a window name (any value
23 starting with .) or one of the characters x or ^ (see the RELA‐
24 TIVE PLACEMENT section below), then the command is processed in
25 the same way as grid configure.
26 grid anchor window ?anchor?
28 The anchor value controls how to place the grid within the con‐
29 tainer window when no row/column has any weight. See THE GRID
30 ALGORITHM below for further details. The default anchor is nw.
31 grid bbox window ?column row? ?column2 row2?
33 With no arguments, the bounding box (in pixels) of the grid is
34 returned. The return value consists of 4 integers. The first
35 two are the pixel offset from the container window (x then y) of
36 the top-left corner of the grid, and the second two integers are
37 the width and height of the grid, also in pixels. If a single
38 column and row is specified on the command line, then the bound‐
39 ing box for that cell is returned, where the top left cell is
40 numbered from zero. If both column and row arguments are speci‐
41 fied, then the bounding box spanning the rows and columns indi‐
42 cated is returned.
43 grid columnconfigure window index ?-option value...?
45 Query or set the column properties of the index column of the
46 geometry container, window. The valid options are -minsize,
47 -weight, -uniform and -pad. If one or more options are pro‐
48 vided, then index may be given as a list of column indices to
49 which the configuration options will operate on. Indices may be
50 integers, window names or the keyword all. For all the options
51 apply to all columns currently occupied be content windows. For
52 a window name, that window must be a content of this container
53 and the options apply to all columns currently occupied be the
54 content. The -minsize option sets the minimum size, in screen
55 units, that will be permitted for this column. The -weight op‐
56 tion (an integer value) sets the relative weight for apportion‐
57 ing any extra spaces among columns. A weight of zero (0) indi‐
58 cates the column will not deviate from its requested size. A
59 column whose weight is two will grow at twice the rate as a col‐
60 umn of weight one when extra space is allocated to the layout.
61 The -uniform option, when a non-empty value is supplied, places
62 the column in a uniform group with other columns that have the
63 same value for -uniform. The space for columns belonging to a
64 uniform group is allocated so that their sizes are always in
65 strict proportion to their -weight values. See THE GRID ALGO‐
66 RITHM below for further details. The -pad option specifies the
67 number of screen units that will be added to the largest window
68 contained completely in that column when the grid geometry man‐
69 ager requests a size from the containing window. If only an op‐
70 tion is specified, with no value, the current value of that op‐
71 tion is returned. If only the container window and index is
72 specified, all the current settings are returned in a list of
73 “-option value” pairs.
74 grid configure window ?window ...? ?options?
76 The arguments consist of the names of one or more content win‐
77 dows followed by pairs of arguments that specify how to manage
78 the content. The characters -, x and ^, can be specified in‐
79 stead of a window name to alter the default location of a win‐
80 dow, as described in the RELATIVE PLACEMENT section, below. The
81 following options are supported:
82 -column n
84 Insert the window so that it occupies the nth column in
85 the grid. Column numbers start with 0. If this option
86 is not supplied, then the window is arranged just to the
87 right of previous window specified on this call to grid,
88 or column “0” if it is the first window. For each x that
89 immediately precedes the window, the column position is
90 incremented by one. Thus the x represents a blank column
91 for this row in the grid.
92 -columnspan n
94 Insert the window so that it occupies n columns in the
95 grid. The default is one column, unless the window name
96 is followed by a -, in which case the columnspan is in‐
97 cremented once for each immediately following -.
98 -in container
100 Insert the window(s) in the container window given by
101 container. The default is the first window's parent win‐
102 dow.
103 -ipadx amount
105 The amount specifies how much horizontal internal padding
106 to leave on each side of the content. This is space is
107 added inside the content border. The amount must be a
108 valid screen distance, such as 2 or .5c. It defaults to
109 0.
110 -ipady amount
112 The amount specifies how much vertical internal padding
113 to leave on the top and bottom of the content. This
114 space is added inside the content border. The amount
115 defaults to 0.
116 -padx amount
118 The amount specifies how much horizontal external padding
119 to leave on each side of the content, in screen units.
120 Amount may be a list of two values to specify padding for
121 left and right separately. The amount defaults to 0.
122 This space is added outside the content border.
123 -pady amount
125 The amount specifies how much vertical external padding
126 to leave on the top and bottom of the content, in screen
127 units. Amount may be a list of two values to specify
128 padding for top and bottom separately. The amount de‐
129 faults to 0. This space is added outside the content
130 border.
131 -row n Insert the content so that it occupies the nth row in the
133 grid. Row numbers start with 0. If this option is not
134 supplied, then the content is arranged on the same row as
135 the previous content specified on this call to grid, or
136 the next row after the highest occupied row if this is
137 the first content.
138 -rowspan n
140 Insert the content so that it occupies n rows in the
141 grid. The default is one row. If the next grid command
142 contains ^ characters instead of content that line up
143 with the columns of this content, then the rowspan of
144 this content is extended by one.
145 -sticky style
147 If a content's cell is larger than its requested dimen‐
148 sions, this option may be used to position (or stretch)
149 the content within its cell. Style is a string that
150 contains zero or more of the characters n, s, e or w.
151 The string can optionally contains spaces or commas, but
152 they are ignored. Each letter refers to a side (north,
153 south, east, or west) that the content will “stick” to.
154 If both n and s (or e and w) are specified, the content
155 will be stretched to fill the entire height (or width) of
156 its cavity. The -sticky option subsumes the combination
157 of -anchor and -fill that is used by pack. The default
158 is “”, which causes the content to be centered in its
159 cavity, at its requested size.
160 If any of the content is already managed by the geometry manager
162 then any unspecified options for them retain their previous val‐
163 ues rather than receiving default values.
164 grid forget window ?window ...?
166 Removes each of the windows from grid for its container and un‐
167 maps their windows. The content will no longer be managed by
168 the grid geometry manager. The configuration options for that
169 window are forgotten, so that if the window is managed once more
170 by the grid geometry manager, the initial default settings are
171 used.
172 grid info window
174 Returns a list whose elements are the current configuration
175 state of the content given by window in the same option-value
176 form that might be specified to grid configure. The first two
177 elements of the list are “-in container” where container is the
178 windows's container window.
179 grid location window x y
181 Given x and y values in screen units relative to the container
182 window, the column and row number at that x and y location is
183 returned. For locations that are above or to the left of the
184 grid, -1 is returned.
185 grid propagate window ?boolean?
187 If boolean has a true boolean value such as 1 or on then propa‐
188 gation is enabled for window, which must be a window name (see
189 GEOMETRY PROPAGATION below). If boolean has a false boolean
190 value then propagation is disabled for window. In either of
191 these cases an empty string is returned. If boolean is omitted
192 then the command returns 0 or 1 to indicate whether propagation
193 is currently enabled for window. Propagation is enabled by de‐
194 fault.
195 grid rowconfigure window index ?-option value...?
197 Query or set the row properties of the index row of the geometry
198 window, window. The valid options are -minsize, -weight, -uni‐
199 form and -pad. If one or more options are provided, then index
200 may be given as a list of row indices to which the configuration
201 options will operate on. Indices may be integers, window names
202 or the keyword all. For all the options apply to all rows cur‐
203 rently occupied by content windows. For a window name, that win‐
204 dow must be a content window of this container and the options
205 apply to all rows currently occupied by the container window.
206 The -minsize option sets the minimum size, in screen units, that
207 will be permitted for this row. The -weight option (an integer
208 value) sets the relative weight for apportioning any extra spa‐
209 ces among rows. A weight of zero (0) indicates the row will not
210 deviate from its requested size. A row whose weight is two will
211 grow at twice the rate as a row of weight one when extra space
212 is allocated to the layout. The -uniform option, when a non-
213 empty value is supplied, places the row in a uniform group with
214 other rows that have the same value for -uniform. The space for
215 rows belonging to a uniform group is allocated so that their
216 sizes are always in strict proportion to their -weight values.
217 See THE GRID ALGORITHM below for further details. The -pad op‐
218 tion specifies the number of screen units that will be added to
219 the largest window contained completely in that row when the
220 grid geometry manager requests a size from the containing win‐
221 dow. If only an option is specified, with no value, the current
222 value of that option is returned. If only the container window
223 and index is specified, all the current settings are returned in
224 a list of “-option value” pairs.
225 grid remove window ?window ...?
227 Removes each of the windows from grid for its container and un‐
228 maps their windows. The content will no longer be managed by
229 the grid geometry manager. However, the configuration options
230 for that window are remembered, so that if the content window is
231 managed once more by the grid geometry manager, the previous
232 values are retained.
233 grid size container
235 Returns the size of the grid (in columns then rows) for con‐
236 tainer. The size is determined either by the content occupying
237 the largest row or column, or the largest column or row with a
238 -minsize, -weight, or -pad that is non-zero.
239 grid slaves window ?-option value?
241 If no options are supplied, a list of all of the content in win‐
242 dow are returned, most recently managed first. Option can be
243 either -row or -column which causes only the content in the row
244 (or column) specified by value to be returned. │
245 grid content window ?-option value? │
247 Synonym for grid slaves window ?-option value?.
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250 The grid command contains a limited set of capabilities that permit
251 layouts to be created without specifying the row and column information
252 for each content. This permits content to be rearranged, added, or re‐
253 moved without the need to explicitly specify row and column informa‐
254 tion. When no column or row information is specified for a content,
255 default values are chosen for -column, -row, -columnspan and -rowspan
256 at the time the content is managed. The values are chosen based upon
257 the current layout of the grid, the position of the content relative to
258 other contents in the same grid command, and the presence of the char‐
259 acters -, x, and ^ in grid command where content names are normally ex‐
260 pected.
261 - This increases the -columnspan of the content to the
263 left. Several -'s in a row will successively increase
264 the number of columns spanned. A - may not follow a ^ or
265 a x, nor may it be the first content argument to grid
266 configure.
267 x This leaves an empty column between the content on the
269 left and the content on the right.
270 ^ This extends the -rowspan of the content above the ^'s in
272 the grid. The number of ^'s in a row must match the num‐
273 ber of columns spanned by the content above it.
274
276 The grid geometry manager lays out its content in three steps. In the
277 first step, the minimum size needed to fit all of the content is com‐
278 puted, then (if propagation is turned on), a request is made of the
279 container window to become that size. In the second step, the re‐
280 quested size is compared against the actual size of the container. If
281 the sizes are different, then spaces is added to or taken away from the
282 layout as needed. For the final step, each content is positioned in
283 its row(s) and column(s) based on the setting of its sticky flag.
284 To compute the minimum size of a layout, the grid geometry manager
286 first looks at all content whose -columnspan and -rowspan values are
287 one, and computes the nominal size of each row or column to be either
288 the minsize for that row or column, or the sum of the padding plus the
289 size of the largest content, whichever is greater. After that the rows
290 or columns in each uniform group adapt to each other. Then the content
291 whose row-spans or column-spans are greater than one are examined. If
292 a group of rows or columns need to be increased in size in order to ac‐
293 commodate these content, then extra space is added to each row or col‐
294 umn in the group according to its weight. For each group whose weights
295 are all zero, the additional space is apportioned equally.
296 When multiple rows or columns belong to a uniform group, the space al‐
298 located to them is always in proportion to their weights. (A weight of
299 zero is considered to be 1.) In other words, a row or column config‐
300 ured with -weight 1 -uniform a will have exactly the same size as any
301 other row or column configured with -weight 1 -uniform a. A row or
302 column configured with -weight 2 -uniform b will be exactly twice as
303 large as one that is configured with -weight 1 -uniform b.
304 More technically, each row or column in the group will have a size
306 equal to k*weight for some constant k. The constant k is chosen so
307 that no row or column becomes smaller than its minimum size. For exam‐
308 ple, if all rows or columns in a group have the same weight, then each
309 row or column will have the same size as the largest row or column in
310 the group.
311 For containers whose size is larger than the requested layout, the ad‐
313 ditional space is apportioned according to the row and column weights.
314 If all of the weights are zero, the layout is placed within its con‐
315 tainer according to the anchor value. For containers whose size is
316 smaller than the requested layout, space is taken away from columns and
317 rows according to their weights. However, once a column or row shrinks
318 to its minsize, its weight is taken to be zero. If more space needs to
319 be removed from a layout than would be permitted, as when all the rows
320 or columns are at their minimum sizes, the layout is placed and clipped
321 according to the anchor value.
322
324 The grid geometry manager normally computes how large a container must
325 be to just exactly meet the needs of its content, and it sets the re‐
326 quested width and height of the container to these dimensions. This
327 causes geometry information to propagate up through a window hierarchy
328 to a top-level window so that the entire sub-tree sizes itself to fit
329 the needs of the leaf windows. However, the grid propagate command may
330 be used to turn off propagation for one or more containers. If propa‐
331 gation is disabled then grid will not set the requested width and
332 height of the container window. This may be useful if, for example,
333 you wish for a container window to have a fixed size that you specify.
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336 The container for each content must either be the content's parent (the
337 default) or a descendant of the content's parent. This restriction is
338 necessary to guarantee that the content can be placed over any part of
339 its container that is visible without danger of the content being
340 clipped by its parent. In addition, all content in one call to grid
341 must have the same container.
342
344 If the container for a content is not its parent then you must make
345 sure that the content is higher in the stacking order than the con‐
346 tainer. Otherwise the container will obscure the content and it will
347 appear as if the content has not been managed correctly. The easiest
348 way to make sure the content is higher than the container is to create
349 the container window first: the most recently created window will be
350 highest in the stacking order.
351
353 The grid command is based on ideas taken from the GridBag geometry man‐
354 ager written by Doug. Stein, and the blt_table geometry manager, writ‐
355 ten by George Howlett.
356
358 A toplevel window containing a text widget and two scrollbars:
359 # Make the widgets
361 toplevel .t
362 text .t.txt -wrap none -xscroll {.t.h set} -yscroll {.t.v set}
363 scrollbar .t.v -orient vertical -command {.t.txt yview}
364 scrollbar .t.h -orient horizontal -command {.t.txt xview}
365 # Lay them out
367 grid .t.txt .t.v -sticky nsew
368 grid .t.h -sticky nsew
369 # Tell the text widget to take all the extra room
371 grid rowconfigure .t .t.txt -weight 1
372 grid columnconfigure .t .t.txt -weight 1
373 Three widgets of equal width, despite their different “natural” widths:
375 button .b -text "Foo"
377 entry .e -textvariable foo ; set foo "Hello World!"
378 label .l -text "This is a fairly long piece of text"
379 grid .b .e .l -sticky ew
381 grid columnconfigure . "all" -uniform allTheSame
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384 pack(n), place(n)
385
387 geometry manager, location, grid, cell, propagation, size, pack
388Tk 8.5 grid(n)