entry(3tk) Tk Built-In Commands entry(3tk)
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NAME
entry - Create and manipulate 'entry' one-line text entry widgets
SYNOPSIS
entry pathName ?options?
STANDARD OPTIONS
-background -highlightthickness -selectbackground
-borderwidth -insertbackground -selectborderwidth
-cursor -insertborderwidth -selectforeground
-exportselection -insertofftime -takefocus
-font -insertontime -textvariable
-foreground -insertwidth -xscrollcommand
-highlightbackground -justify
-highlightcolor -relief
See the options manual entry for details on the standard options.
WIDGET-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
Command-Line Name:-disabledbackground
Database Name: disabledBackground
Database Class: DisabledBackground
Specifies the background color to use when the entry is dis-
abled. If this option is the empty string, the normal back-
ground color is used.
Command-Line Name:-disabledforeground
Database Name: disabledForeground
Database Class: DisabledForeground
Specifies the foreground color to use when the entry is dis-
abled. If this option is the empty string, the normal fore-
ground color is used.
Command-Line Name:-invalidcommand or -invcmd
Database Name: invalidCommand
Database Class: InvalidCommand
Specifies a script to eval when -validatecommand returns 0.
Setting it to {} disables this feature (the default). The best
use of this option is to set it to bell. See VALIDATION below
for more information.
Command-Line Name:-readonlybackground
Database Name: readonlyBackground
Database Class: ReadonlyBackground
Specifies the background color to use when the entry is read-
only. If this option is the empty string, the normal background
color is used.
Command-Line Name:-show
Database Name: show
Database Class: Show
If this option is specified, then the true contents of the entry
are not displayed in the window. Instead, each character in the
entry's value will be displayed as the first character in the
value of this option, such as “*”. This is useful, for example,
if the entry is to be used to enter a password. If characters
in the entry are selected and copied elsewhere, the information
copied will be what is displayed, not the true contents of the
entry.
Command-Line Name:-state
Database Name: state
Database Class: State
Specifies one of three states for the entry: normal, disabled,
or readonly. If the entry is readonly, then the value may not
be changed using widget commands and no insertion cursor will be
displayed, even if the input focus is in the widget; the con-
tents of the widget may still be selected. If the entry is dis-
abled, the value may not be changed, no insertion cursor will be
displayed, the contents will not be selectable, and the entry
may be displayed in a different color, depending on the values
of the -disabledforeground and -disabledbackground options.
Command-Line Name:-validate
Database Name: validate
Database Class: Validate
Specifies the mode in which validation should operate: none, fo-
cus, focusin, focusout, key, or all. It defaults to none. When
you want validation, you must explicitly state which mode you
wish to use. See VALIDATION below for more.
Command-Line Name:-validatecommand or -vcmd
Database Name: validateCommand
Database Class: ValidateCommand
Specifies a script to eval when you want to validate the input
into the entry widget. Setting it to {} disables this feature
(the default). This command must return a valid Tcl boolean
value. If it returns 0 (or the valid Tcl boolean equivalent)
then it means you reject the new edition and it will not occur
and the -invalidcommand will be evaluated if it is set. If it
returns 1, then the new edition occurs. See VALIDATION below
for more information.
Command-Line Name:-width
Database Name: width
Database Class: Width
Specifies an integer value indicating the desired width of the
entry window, in average-size characters of the widget's font.
If the value is less than or equal to zero, the widget picks a
size just large enough to hold its current text.
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DESCRIPTION
The entry command creates a new window (given by the pathName argument)
and makes it into an entry widget. Additional options, described
above, may be specified on the command line or in the option database
to configure aspects of the entry such as its colors, font, and relief.
The entry command returns its pathName argument. At the time this com-
mand is invoked, there must not exist a window named pathName, but
pathName's parent must exist.
An entry is a widget that displays a one-line text string and allows
that string to be edited using widget commands described below, which
are typically bound to keystrokes and mouse actions. When first cre-
ated, an entry's string is empty. A portion of the entry may be se-
lected as described below. If an entry is exporting its selection (see
the -exportselection option), then it will observe the standard X11
protocols for handling the selection; entry selections are available
as type STRING. Entries also observe the standard Tk rules for dealing
with the input focus. When an entry has the input focus it displays an
insertion cursor to indicate where new characters will be inserted.
Entries are capable of displaying strings that are too long to fit en-
tirely within the widget's window. In this case, only a portion of the
string will be displayed; commands described below may be used to
change the view in the window. Entries use the standard -xscrollcom-
mand mechanism for interacting with scrollbars (see the description of
the -xscrollcommand option for details). They also support scanning,
as described below.
VALIDATION
Validation works by setting the -validatecommand option to a script
(validateCommand) which will be evaluated according to the -validate
option as follows:
none Default. This means no validation will occur.
focus validateCommand will be called when the entry receives or
loses focus.
focusin validateCommand will be called when the entry receives focus.
focusout validateCommand will be called when the entry loses focus.
key validateCommand will be called when the entry is edited.
all validateCommand will be called for all above conditions.
It is possible to perform percent substitutions on the value of the
-validatecommand and -invalidcommand options, just as you would in a
bind script. The following substitutions are recognized:
%d Type of action: 1 for insert, 0 for delete, or -1 for focus,
forced or textvariable validation.
%i Index of char string to be inserted/deleted, if any, otherwise -1.
%P The value of the entry if the edit is allowed. If you are config-
uring the entry widget to have a new textvariable, this will be
the value of that textvariable.
%s The current value of entry prior to editing.
%S The text string being inserted/deleted, if any, {} otherwise.
%v The type of validation currently set.
%V The type of validation that triggered the callback (key, focusin,
focusout, forced).
%W The name of the entry widget.
In general, the -textvariable and -validatecommand options can be dan-
gerous to mix. Any problems have been overcome so that using the -val-
idatecommand will not interfere with the traditional behavior of the
entry widget. Using the -textvariable for read-only purposes will
never cause problems. The danger comes when you try set the -textvari-
able to something that the -validatecommand would not accept, which
causes -validate to become none (the -invalidcommand will not be trig-
gered). The same happens when an error occurs evaluating the -vali-
datecommand.
Primarily, an error will occur when the -validatecommand or -invalid-
command encounters an error in its script while evaluating or -vali-
datecommand does not return a valid Tcl boolean value. The -validate
option will also set itself to none when you edit the entry widget from
within either the -validatecommand or the -invalidcommand. Such edi-
tions will override the one that was being validated. If you wish to
edit the entry widget (for example set it to {}) during validation and
still have the -validate option set, you should include the command
after idle {%W config -validate %v}
in the -validatecommand or -invalidcommand (whichever one you were
editing the entry widget from). It is also recommended to not set an
associated -textvariable during validation, as that can cause the entry
widget to become out of sync with the -textvariable.
WIDGET COMMAND
The entry command creates a new Tcl command whose name is pathName.
This command may be used to invoke various operations on the widget.
It has the following general form:
pathName subcommand ?arg arg ...?
Subcommand and the args determine the exact behavior of the command.
INDICES
Many of the widget commands for entries take one or more indices as ar-
guments. An index specifies a particular character in the entry's
string, in any of the following ways:
number Specifies the character as a numerical index, where 0 cor-
responds to the first character in the string.
anchor Indicates the anchor point for the selection, which is set
with the select from and select adjust widget commands.
end Indicates the character just after the last one in the en-
try's string. This is equivalent to specifying a numerical
index equal to the length of the entry's string.
insert Indicates the character adjacent to and immediately follow-
ing the insertion cursor.
sel.first Indicates the first character in the selection. It is an
error to use this form if the selection is not in the entry
window.
sel.last Indicates the character just after the last one in the se-
lection. It is an error to use this form if the selection
is not in the entry window.
@number In this form, number is treated as an x-coordinate in the
entry's window; the character spanning that x-coordinate
is used. For example, “@0” indicates the left-most charac-
ter in the window.
Abbreviations may be used for any of the forms above, e.g. “e” or
“sel.f”. In general, out-of-range indices are automatically rounded to
the nearest legal value.
SUBCOMMANDS
The following commands are possible for entry widgets:
pathName bbox index
Returns a list of four numbers describing the bounding box of
the character given by index. The first two elements of the
list give the x and y coordinates of the upper-left corner of
the screen area covered by the character (in pixels relative to
the widget) and the last two elements give the width and height
of the character, in pixels. The bounding box may refer to a
region outside the visible area of the window.
pathName cget option
Returns the current value of the configuration option given by
option. Option may have any of the values accepted by the entry
command.
pathName configure ?option? ?value option value ...?
Query or modify the configuration options of the widget. If no
option is specified, returns a list describing all of the avail-
able options for pathName (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information
on the format of this list). If option is specified with no
value, then the command returns a list describing the one named
option (this list will be identical to the corresponding sublist
of the value returned if no option is specified). If one or
more option-value pairs are specified, then the command modifies
the given widget option(s) to have the given value(s); in this
case the command returns an empty string. Option may have any
of the values accepted by the entry command.
pathName delete first ?last?
Delete one or more elements of the entry. First is the index of
the first character to delete, and last is the index of the
character just after the last one to delete. If last is not
specified it defaults to first+1, i.e. a single character is
deleted. This command returns an empty string.
pathName get
Returns the entry's string.
pathName icursor index
Arrange for the insertion cursor to be displayed just before the
character given by index. Returns an empty string.
pathName index index
Returns the numerical index corresponding to index.
pathName insert index string
Insert the characters of string just before the character indi-
cated by index. Returns an empty string.
pathName scan option args
This command is used to implement scanning on entries. It has
two forms, depending on option:
pathName scan mark x
Records x and the current view in the entry window; used
in conjunction with later scan dragto commands. Typi-
cally this command is associated with a mouse button
press in the widget. It returns an empty string.
pathName scan dragto x
This command computes the difference between its x argu-
ment and the x argument to the last scan mark command for
the widget. It then adjusts the view left or right by 10
times the difference in x-coordinates. This command is
typically associated with mouse motion events in the wid-
get, to produce the effect of dragging the entry at high
speed through the window. The return value is an empty
string.
pathName selection option arg
This command is used to adjust the selection within an entry.
It has several forms, depending on option:
pathName selection adjust index
Locate the end of the selection nearest to the character
given by index, and adjust that end of the selection to
be at index (i.e. including but not going beyond index).
The other end of the selection is made the anchor point
for future select to commands. If the selection is not
currently in the entry, then a new selection is created
to include the characters between index and the most re-
cent selection anchor point, inclusive. Returns an empty
string.
pathName selection clear
Clear the selection if it is currently in this widget.
If the selection is not in this widget then the command
has no effect. Returns an empty string.
pathName selection from index
Set the selection anchor point to just before the charac-
ter given by index. Does not change the selection. Re-
turns an empty string.
pathName selection present
Returns 1 if there is are characters selected in the en-
try, 0 if nothing is selected.
pathName selection range start end
Sets the selection to include the characters starting
with the one indexed by start and ending with the one
just before end. If end refers to the same character as
start or an earlier one, then the entry's selection is
cleared.
pathName selection to index
If index is before the anchor point, set the selection to
the characters from index up to but not including the an-
chor point. If index is the same as the anchor point, do
nothing. If index is after the anchor point, set the se-
lection to the characters from the anchor point up to but
not including index. The anchor point is determined by
the most recent select from or select adjust command in
this widget. If the selection is not in this widget then
a new selection is created using the most recent anchor
point specified for the widget. Returns an empty string.
pathName validate
This command is used to force an evaluation of the -validatecom-
mand independent of the conditions specified by the -validate
option. This is done by temporarily setting the -validate op-
tion to all. It returns 0 or 1.
pathName xview args
This command is used to query and change the horizontal position
of the text in the widget's window. It can take any of the fol-
lowing forms:
pathName xview
Returns a list containing two elements. Each element is
a real fraction between 0 and 1; together they describe
the horizontal span that is visible in the window. For
example, if the first element is .2 and the second ele-
ment is .6, 20% of the entry's text is off-screen to the
left, the middle 40% is visible in the window, and 40% of
the text is off-screen to the right. These are the same
values passed to scrollbars via the -xscrollcommand op-
tion.
pathName xview index
Adjusts the view in the window so that the character
given by index is displayed at the left edge of the win-
dow.
pathName xview moveto fraction
Adjusts the view in the window so that the character
fraction of the way through the text appears at the left
edge of the window. Fraction must be a fraction between
0 and 1.
pathName xview scroll number what
This command shifts the view in the window left or right
according to number and what. Number must be an integer.
What must be either units or pages or an abbreviation of
one of these. If what is units, the view adjusts left or
right by number average-width characters on the display;
if it is pages then the view adjusts by number screen-
fuls. If number is negative then characters farther to
the left become visible; if it is positive then charac-
ters farther to the right become visible.
DEFAULT BINDINGS
Tk automatically creates class bindings for entries that give them the
following default behavior. In the descriptions below, “word” refers to
a contiguous group of letters, digits, or “_” characters, or any single
character other than these.
[1] Clicking mouse button 1 positions the insertion cursor just be-
fore the character underneath the mouse cursor, sets the input
focus to this widget, and clears any selection in the widget.
Dragging with mouse button 1 strokes out a selection between the
insertion cursor and the character under the mouse.
[2] Double-clicking with mouse button 1 selects the word under the
mouse and positions the insertion cursor at the end of the word.
Dragging after a double click will stroke out a selection con-
sisting of whole words.
[3] Triple-clicking with mouse button 1 selects all of the text in
the entry and positions the insertion cursor at the end of the
line.
[4] The ends of the selection can be adjusted by dragging with mouse
button 1 while the Shift key is down; this will adjust the end
of the selection that was nearest to the mouse cursor when but-
ton 1 was pressed. If the button is double-clicked before drag-
ging then the selection will be adjusted in units of whole
words.
[5] Clicking mouse button 1 with the Control key down will position
the insertion cursor in the entry without affecting the selec-
tion.
[6] If any normal printing characters are typed in an entry, they
are inserted at the point of the insertion cursor.
[7] The view in the entry can be adjusted by dragging with the mid-
dle mouse button (button 2, or button 3 in TkAqua). If the mid-
dle mouse button is clicked without moving the mouse, the selec-
tion is copied into the entry at the position of the mouse cur-
sor.
[8] If the mouse is dragged out of the entry on the left or right
sides while button 1 is pressed, the entry will automatically
scroll to make more text visible (if there is more text off-
screen on the side where the mouse left the window).
[9] The Left and Right keys move the insertion cursor one character
to the left or right; they also clear any selection in the en-
try and set the selection anchor. If Left or Right is typed
with the Shift key down, then the insertion cursor moves and the
selection is extended to include the new character. Control-
Left and Control-Right move the insertion cursor by words, and
Control-Shift-Left and Control-Shift-Right move the insertion
cursor by words and also extend the selection. Control-b and
Control-f behave the same as Left and Right, respectively.
Meta-b and Meta-f behave the same as Control-Left and Control-
Right, respectively.
[10] The Home key, or Control-a, will move the insertion cursor to
the beginning of the entry and clear any selection in the entry.
Shift-Home moves the insertion cursor to the beginning of the
entry and also extends the selection to that point.
[11] The End key, or Control-e, will move the insertion cursor to the
end of the entry and clear any selection in the entry. Shift-
End moves the cursor to the end and extends the selection to
that point.
[12] The Select key and Control-Space set the selection anchor to the
position of the insertion cursor. They do not affect the cur-
rent selection. Shift-Select and Control-Shift-Space adjust the
selection to the current position of the insertion cursor, se-
lecting from the anchor to the insertion cursor if there was not
any selection previously.
[13] Control-/ selects all the text in the entry.
[14] Control-\ clears any selection in the entry.
[15] The F16 key (labelled Copy on many Sun workstations) or Meta-w
copies the selection in the widget to the clipboard, if there is
a selection.
[16] The F20 key (labelled Cut on many Sun workstations) or Control-w
copies the selection in the widget to the clipboard and deletes
the selection. If there is no selection in the widget then
these keys have no effect.
[17] The F18 key (labelled Paste on many Sun workstations) or Con-
trol-y inserts the contents of the clipboard at the position of
the insertion cursor.
[18] The Delete key deletes the selection, if there is one in the en-
try. If there is no selection, it deletes the character to the
right of the insertion cursor.
[19] The BackSpace key and Control-h delete the selection, if there
is one in the entry. If there is no selection, it deletes the
character to the left of the insertion cursor.
[20] Control-d deletes the character to the right of the insertion
cursor.
[21] Meta-d deletes the word to the right of the insertion cursor.
[22] Control-k deletes all the characters to the right of the inser-
tion cursor.
[23] Control-t reverses the order of the two characters to the right
of the insertion cursor.
If the entry is disabled using the -state option, then the entry's view
can still be adjusted and text in the entry can still be selected, but
no insertion cursor will be displayed and no text modifications will
take place except if the entry is linked to a variable using the
-textvariable option, in which case any changes to the variable are re-
flected by the entry whatever the value of its -state option.
The behavior of entries can be changed by defining new bindings for in-
dividual widgets or by redefining the class bindings.
SEE ALSO
ttk::entry(3tk)
KEYWORDS
entry, widget
Tk 8.3 entry(3tk)
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