ttk::entry(3tk) Tk Themed Widget ttk::entry(3tk)
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NAME
ttk::entry - Editable text field widget
SYNOPSIS
ttk::entry pathName ?options?
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DESCRIPTION
An ttk::entry widget displays a one-line text string and allows that
string to be edited by the user. The value of the string may be linked
to a Tcl variable with the -textvariable option. Entry widgets support
horizontal scrolling with the standard -xscrollcommand option and xview
widget command.
STANDARD OPTIONS
-class -cursor
-font -foreground
-style
-takefocus -xscrollcommand
See the ttk_widget manual entry for details on the standard options.
WIDGET-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
Command-Line Name:-exportselection
Database Name: exportSelection
Database Class: ExportSelection
A boolean value specifying whether or not a selection in the
widget should be linked to the X selection. If the selection is
exported, then selecting in the widget deselects the current X
selection, selecting outside the widget deselects any widget se-
lection, and the widget will respond to selection retrieval re-
quests when it has a selection.
Command-Line Name:-invalidcommand
Database Name: invalidCommand
Database Class: InvalidCommand
A script template to evaluate whenever the -validatecommand re-
turns 0. See VALIDATION below for more information.
Command-Line Name:-justify
Database Name: justify
Database Class: Justify
Specifies how the text is aligned within the entry widget. One
of left, center, or right.
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 “*” or a bullet. 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 con-
tents of the entry.
Command-Line Name:-state
Database Name: state
Database Class: State
Compatibility option; see ttk::widget(3tk) for details. Speci-
fies one of three states for the entry, normal, disabled, or
readonly. See WIDGET STATES, below.
Command-Line Name:-textvariable
Database Name: textVariable
Database Class: Variable
Specifies the name of a global variable whose value is linked to
the entry widget's contents. Whenever the variable changes
value, the widget's contents are updated, and vice versa.
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. Default is none, meaning
that validation is disabled. See VALIDATION below.
Command-Line Name:-validatecommand
Database Name: validateCommand
Database Class: ValidateCommand
A script template to evaluate whenever validation is triggered.
If set to the empty string (the default), validation is dis-
abled. The script must return a boolean value. See VALIDATION
below.
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.
NOTES
A portion of the entry may be selected 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 insert 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).
INDICES
Many of the entry widget commands take one or more indices as argu-
ments. 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 corre-
sponds to the first character in the string.
@number
In this form, number is treated as an x-coordinate in the en-
try's window; the character spanning that x-coordinate is used.
For example, “@0” indicates the left-most character in the win-
dow.
end Indicates the character just after the last one in the entry'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 following
the insert 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 selec-
tion. It is an error to use this form if the selection is not
in the entry window.
Abbreviations may be used for any of the forms above, e.g. “e” or
“sel.l”. In general, out-of-range indices are automatically rounded to
the nearest legal value.
WIDGET COMMAND
The following subcommands 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 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 the empty string.
pathName get
Returns the entry's string.
pathName icursor index
Arrange for the insert cursor to be displayed just before the
character given by index. Returns the empty string.
pathName index index
Returns the numerical index corresponding to index.
pathName insert index string
Insert string just before the character indicated by index. Re-
turns the 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 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 the 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 validate
Force revalidation, independent of the conditions specified by
the -validate option. Returns 0 if validation fails, 1 if it
succeeds. Sets or clears the invalid state accordingly. See
VALIDATION below for more details.
The entry widget also supports the following generic ttk::widget widget
subcommands (see ttk::widget(3tk) for details):
cget configure identify
instate state xview
VALIDATION
The -validate, -validatecommand, and -invalidcommand options are used
to enable entry widget validation.
VALIDATION MODES
There are two main validation modes: prevalidation, in which the -vali-
datecommand is evaluated prior to each edit and the return value is
used to determine whether to accept or reject the change; and revalida-
tion, in which the -validatecommand is evaluated to determine whether
the current value is valid.
The -validate option determines when validation occurs; it may be set
to any of the following values:
none Default. This means validation will only occur when
specifically requested by the validate widget command.
key The entry will be prevalidated prior to each edit
(specifically, whenever the insert or delete widget com-
mands are called). If prevalidation fails, the edit is
rejected.
focus The entry is revalidated when the entry receives or loses
focus.
focusin
The entry is revalidated when the entry receives focus.
focusout
The entry is revalidated when the entry loses focus.
all Validation is performed for all above conditions.
The -invalidcommand is evaluated whenever the -validatecommand returns
a false value.
The -validatecommand and -invalidcommand may modify the entry widget's
value via the widget insert or delete commands, or by setting the
linked -textvariable. If either does so during prevalidation, then the
edit is rejected regardless of the value returned by the -validatecom-
mand.
If -validatecommand is empty (the default), validation always succeeds.
VALIDATION SCRIPT SUBSTITUTIONS
It is possible to perform percent substitutions on the -validatecommand
and -invalidcommand, just as in a bind script. The following substitu-
tions are recognized:
%d Type of action: 1 for insert prevalidation, 0 for delete
prevalidation, or -1 for revalidation.
%i Index of character string to be inserted/deleted, if any,
otherwise -1.
%P In prevalidation, the new value of the entry if the edit
is accepted. In revalidation, the current value of the
entry.
%s The current value of entry prior to editing.
%S The text string being inserted/deleted, if any, {} other-
wise.
%v The current value of the -validate option.
%V The validation condition that triggered the callback
(key, focusin, focusout, or forced).
%W The name of the entry widget.
DIFFERENCES FROM TK ENTRY WIDGET VALIDATION
The standard Tk entry widget automatically disables validation (by set-
ting -validate to none) if the -validatecommand or -invalidcommand mod-
ifies the entry's value. The Tk themed entry widget only disables val-
idation if one of the validation scripts raises an error, or if -vali-
datecommand does not return a valid boolean value. (Thus, it is not
necessary to re-enable validation after modifying the entry value in a
validation script).
In addition, the standard entry widget invokes validation whenever the
linked -textvariable is modified; the Tk themed entry widget does not.
DEFAULT BINDINGS
The entry widget's default bindings enable the following behavior. In
the descriptions below, “word” refers to a contiguous group of letters,
digits, or “_” characters, or any single character other than these.
• Clicking mouse button 1 positions the insert cursor just before 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 down strokes out a selection between the insert cur-
sor and the character under the mouse.
• Double-clicking with mouse button 1 selects the word under the
mouse and positions the insert cursor at the end of the word.
Dragging after a double click strokes out a selection consisting of
whole words.
• Triple-clicking with mouse button 1 selects all of the text in the
entry and positions the insert cursor at the end of the line.
• The ends of the selection can be adjusted by dragging with mouse
button 1 while the Shift key is down. If the button is double-
clicked before dragging then the selection will be adjusted in
units of whole words.
• Clicking mouse button 1 with the Control key down will position the
insert cursor in the entry without affecting the selection.
• If any normal printing characters are typed in an entry, they are
inserted at the point of the insert cursor.
• The view in the entry can be adjusted by dragging with the middle
mouse button (button 2, or button 3 in TkAqua). If the middle mouse
button is clicked without moving the mouse, the selection is copied
into the entry at the position of the mouse cursor.
• 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).
• The Left and Right keys move the insert cursor one character to the
left or right; they also clear any selection in the entry. 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 char-
acter. Control-Left and Control-Right move the insert cursor by
words, and Control-Shift-Left and Control-Shift-Right move the in-
sert cursor by words and also extend the selection. Control-b and
Control-f behave the same as Left and Right, respectively.
• The Home key and Control-a move the insert cursor to the beginning
of the entry and clear any selection in the entry. Shift-Home
moves the insert cursor to the beginning of the entry and extends
the selection to that point.
• The End key and Control-e move the insert 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.
• Control-/ selects all the text in the entry.
• Control-\ clears any selection in the entry.
• The standard Tk <<Cut>>, <<Copy>>, <<Paste>>, and <<Clear>> virtual
events operate on the selection in the expected manner.
• The Delete key deletes the selection, if there is one in the entry.
If there is no selection, it deletes the character to the right of
the insert cursor.
• The BackSpace key and Control-h delete the selection, if there is
one in the entry. If there is no selection, it deletes the charac-
ter to the left of the insert cursor.
• Control-d deletes the character to the right of the insert cursor.
• Control-k deletes all the characters to the right of the insertion
cursor.
WIDGET STATES
In the disabled state, the entry cannot be edited and the text cannot
be selected. In the readonly state, no insert cursor is displayed and
the entry cannot be edited (specifically: the insert and delete com-
mands have no effect). The disabled state is the same as readonly, and
in addition text cannot be selected.
Note that changes to the linked -textvariable will still be reflected
in the entry, even if it is disabled or readonly.
Typically, the text is “grayed-out” in the disabled state, and a dif-
ferent background is used in the readonly state.
The entry widget sets the invalid state if revalidation fails, and
clears it whenever validation succeeds.
STYLING OPTIONS
The class name for a ttk::entry is TEntry.
Dynamic states: disabled, focus, readonly.
TEntry styling options configurable with ttk::style are:
-background color
For backwards compatibility, when using the aqua theme (for
macOS), this option behaves as an alias for the -fieldbackground
provided that no value is specified for -fieldbackground. Other-
wise it is ignored.
-bordercolor color
-darkcolor color
-fieldbackground color
Some themes use a graphical background and their field back-
ground colors cannot be changed.
-foreground color
-insertcolor color
-insertwidth amount
-lightcolor color
-padding padding
-relief relief
-selectbackground color
-selectborderwidth amount
-selectforeground color
See the ttk::style manual page for information on how to configure ttk
styles.
SEE ALSO
ttk::widget(3tk), entry(3tk)
KEYWORDS
entry, widget, text field
Tk 8.5 ttk::entry(3tk)
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