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Getting variable out of Tkinter

I would like to ask if anyone knows how to get out a variable from an Entry in Tkinter to be used in future calculation.
Let us assume that I want to create a prompt where the user needs to place two numbers in the two different Entry widgets.
These numbers are to be used in another script for calculation. How can I retrieve the values from the prompt created in Tkinter?
In my opinion, I would need to create a function with the code bellow and make it return the value from the Tkinter prompt. However, I cannot return the numbers because I'm destroying the root window. How can I get pass this, preferably without global variables.
Best Regards
from tkinter import *
from tkinter import ttk
#Start of window
root=Tk()
#title of the window
root.title('Title of the window')
def get_values():
values=[(),(value2.get())]
return values
# Creates a main frame on the window with the master being the root window
mainframe=ttk.Frame(root, width=500, height=300,borderwidth=5, relief="sunken")
mainframe.grid(sticky=(N, S, E, W))
###############################################################################
#
#
# Label of the first value
label1=ttk.Label(master=mainframe, text='First Value')
label1.grid(column=0,row=0)
# Label of the second value
label2=ttk.Label(master=mainframe, text='Second Value')
label2.grid(column=0,row=1)
###############################################################################
#
#
# Entry of the first value
strvar1 = StringVar()
value1 = ttk.Entry(mainframe, textvariable=strvar1)
value1.grid(column=1,row=0)
# Entry of the second value
strvar2 = StringVar()
value2 = ttk.Entry(mainframe, textvariable=strvar2)
value2.grid(column=1,row=1)
# Creates a simplle button widget on the mainframe
button1 = ttk.Button(mainframe, text='Collect', command=get_values)
button1.grid(column=2,row=1)
# Creates a simplle button widget on the mainframe
button2 = ttk.Button(mainframe, text='Exit', command=root.destroy)
button2.grid(column=2,row=2)
root.mainloop()

You use a class because the class instance and it's variables remain after tkinter exits.https://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/python_classes_objects.htm And you may want to reexamine some of your documentation requirements, i.e. when the statement is
"root.title('Title of the window')", adding the explanation "#title of the window" is just a waste of your time..
""" A simplified example
"""
import sys
if 3 == sys.version_info[0]: ## 3.X is default if dual system
import tkinter as tk ## Python 3.x
else:
import Tkinter as tk ## Python 2.x
class GetEntry():
def __init__(self, master):
self.master=master
self.entry_contents=None
self.e = tk.Entry(master)
self.e.grid(row=0, column=0)
self.e.focus_set()
tk.Button(master, text="get", width=10, bg="yellow",
command=self.callback).grid(row=10, column=0)
def callback(self):
""" get the contents of the Entry and exit
"""
self.entry_contents=self.e.get()
self.master.quit()
master = tk.Tk()
GE=GetEntry(master)
master.mainloop()
print("\n***** after tkinter exits, entered =", GE.entry_contents)

So, I have taken Curly Joe's example and made a function with the his sketch
The final result, for anyone wanting to use this as a template for a input dialog box:
def input_dlg():
import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import ttk
class GetEntry():
def __init__(self, master):
self.master=master
self.master.title('Input Dialog Box')
self.entry_contents=None
## Set point entries
# First point
self.point1 = ttk.Entry(master)
self.point1.grid(row=0, column=1)
self.point1.focus_set()
# Second point
self.point2 = ttk.Entry(master)
self.point2.grid(row=1, column=1)
self.point2.focus_set()
# labels
ttk.Label(text='First Point').grid(row=0, column=0)
ttk.Label(text='Second Point').grid(row=1, column=0)
ttk.Button(master, text="Done", width=10,command=self.callback).grid(row=5, column=2)
def callback(self):
""" get the contents of the Entries and exit the prompt"""
self.entry_contents=[self.point1.get(),self.point2.get()]
self.master.destroy()
master = tk.Tk()
GetPoints=GetEntry(master)
master.mainloop()
Points=GetPoints.entry_contents
return list(Points)

In python, functions are objects, as in get_values is an object.
Objects can have attributes.
Using these two, and the knowledge that we can't really return from a button command, we can instead attach an attribute to an already global object and simply use that as the return value.
Example with button
try: # In order to be able to import tkinter for
import tkinter as tk # either in python 2 or in python 3
except ImportError:
import Tkinter as tk
def on_button_press(entry):
on_button_press.value = entry.get()
entry.quit()
def main():
root = tk.Tk()
entry = tk.Entry(root)
tk.Button(root, text="Get Value!", command=lambda e = entry : on_button_press(e)).pack()
entry.pack()
tk.mainloop()
return on_button_press.value
if __name__ == '__main__':
val = main()
print(val)
Minimalistic example
Similarly modules are also objects, if you want to avoid occupying global namespace extremely, you can attach a new attribute to the module you're using
See:
try: # In order to be able to import tkinter for
import tkinter as tk # either in python 2 or in python 3
except ImportError:
import Tkinter as tk
if __name__ == '__main__':
tk.my_value = lambda: [setattr(tk, 'my_value', entry.get()), root.destroy()]
root = tk.Tk()
entry = tk.Entry(root)
root.protocol('WM_DELETE_WINDOW', tk.my_value)
entry.pack()
tk.mainloop()
print(tk.my_value)

Why does destroy() not work in this code?

This is a simple test script I am attempting to write which will help me teach myself about tkinter...
from tkinter import *
def hello():
print("U pressed it lol")
global window1, window2
window2 = None
window1 = None
def setWindow(windowEnter):
global window
window = windowEnter
window = Tk()
window.attributes("-fullscreen", True)
def newScreen(newScreen, screenToDelete):
setWindow(newScreen)
print("New Window Created")
screenToDelete.destroy()
print("He ded lol")
setWindow(window1)
def setStuff():
button = Button(window1, text="hey", command=hello)
label = Label(window1, text="YoYoYo My dude")
button2 = Button(window1, text="Next Page", command = lambda: newScreen(window2, window1))
button.pack()
label.pack()
button2.pack()
setStuff()
When I run this code it returns an error?
File "C:\Users\026341\Desktop\test.py", line 19, in newScreen
screenToDelete.destroy()
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'destroy'
Why doesn't this work & how do i fix it?
Thanks in advance :)
(Btw I'm using python 3.6)

You set
window2 = None
window1 = None
as global variables and then define the command function for button2 to be
lambda: newScreen(window2, window1)
Which calls newScreen with the values window2 and window1 which are both None, hence the error. The underlying issue here is your setWindow function:
def setWindow(windowEnter):
global window
window = windowEnter
window = Tk()
window.attributes("-fullscreen", True)
which doesn't work the way you are using it. When you call setWindow(window1), you pass the value of window1, what the function does with the variable cannot be seen on a global scope. A quick example would be this:
def increment(a):
a +=1
x = 1
print(x)
increment(x)
print(x)
which will print 1 twice.
To achieve what you want I suggest you use a dictionary to keep track of your windows.
from tkinter import *
def hello():
print("U pressed it lol")
global window1, window2
windows = {}
def setWindow(window_name):
windows[window_name] = Tk()
windows[window_name].attributes("-fullscreen", True)
def newScreen(newScreen_name, screenToDelete_name):
setWindow(newScreen_name)
print("New Window Created")
windows[screenToDelete_name].destroy()
del windows[screenToDelete_name] #delete invalid entry from dict
print("He ded lol")
setWindow("window1")
def setStuff():
button = Button(windows["window1"], text="hey", command=hello)
label = Label(windows["window1"], text="YoYoYo My dude")
button2 = Button(windows["window1"], text="Next Page", command = lambda: newScreen("window2", "window1"))
button.pack()
label.pack()
button2.pack()
setStuff()
Note on the side: previously your function was def newScreen(newScreen, screenToDelete), which is very confusing/bad style since both the function and its first argument share the same name. I changed it anyway to highlight that it now takes strings as arguments, but keep it in mind for the furture.

I'm not able to test it right now, but I've spotted a source of error:
lambda: newScreen(window2, window1)
This creates a lambda function that doesn't take any arguments, hence window2 and window1 will be None, and None doesn't have a destroy() method, hence the error. Instead try:
lambda window2, window1: newScreen(window2, window1)

How do you close a tkinter window in another function?

I want a button in my window to open a new window and close the previous one. Is it possible to have one button do both of these? I've tried in the following code, but it hasn't worked, just told me that window is not defined:
import tkinter
def window1():
window = tkinter.Tk()
tkinter.Button(window, text = "Next", command = window2).pack()
window.mainloop()
def window2():
window.destroy() #This is where the error is
menu = tkinter.Tk()
etc, etc, etc
window1()

First, you need to return the window object from the first function:
def window1():
window = tkinter.Tk()
tkinter.Button(window, text = "Next", command = lambda: window2(window)).pack()
window.mainloop()
return window
Then, you need to pass the window as an argument to your function:
def window2(window):
window.destroy()
menu = tkinter.Tk()
And then call window1 with:
window = window1()
and click the button to destroy it and do the rest

This is an example using Toplevels, which is usually a better choice than creating, destroying, re-creating Tk() instances. The unique Toplevel ID is passed to the close_it function using partial(). You would, of course, combine them or have the close function call the open function.
try:
import Tkinter as tk ## Python 2.x
except ImportError:
import tkinter as tk ## Python 3.x
from functools import partial
class OpenToplevels():
""" open and close additional Toplevels with a button
"""
def __init__(self):
self.root = tk.Tk()
self.button_ctr=0
but=tk.Button(self.root, text="Open a Toplevel",
command=self.open_another)
but.grid(row=0, column=0)
tk.Button(self.root, text="Exit Tkinter", bg="red",
command=self.root.quit).grid(row=1, column=0, sticky="we")
self.root.mainloop()
def close_it(self, id):
id.destroy()
def open_another(self):
self.button_ctr += 1
id = tk.Toplevel(self.root)
id.title("Toplevel #%d" % (self.button_ctr))
tk.Button(id, text="Close Toplevel #%d" % (self.button_ctr),
command=partial(self.close_it, id),
bg="orange", width=20).grid(row=1, column=0)
Ot=OpenToplevels()

Yes. Is possible. But you'll need to def that:
def window1:
blablabla
blablabla
def window2:
window2.destroy() <-- Here where the error was
How you noticed, put your name of window what you want Destroy and it will work!

using Python3
You could use a "global" such as:
root = Tk()
root.title('This is the root window')
def window_create():
global window_one
window_one = Tk()
window_one.title('This is window 1')
Then, from any function (or elsewhere) when you want to destroy window_one, do:
def window_destroyer():
window_one.destroy()
You could call your window_destroyer function from a button anywhere such as root which the example shows:
kill_window_btn = Button(root, text="Destroy", command=window_destroyer).pack()
Of course, follow your own naming conventions. :)
It seems to me, just 'global window_one' would solve it.

How do I get the Entry's value in tkinter?

I'm trying to use Tkinter's Entry widget. I can't get it to do something very basic: return the entered value. Does anyone have any idea why such a simple script would not return anything? I've tried tons of combinations and looked at different ideas.
This script runs but does not print the entry:
from Tkinter import *
root = Tk()
E1 = Entry(root)
E1.pack()
entry = E1.get()
root.mainloop()
print "Entered text:", entry
Seems so simple.
Edit
In case anyone else comes across this problem and doesn't understand, here is what ended up working for me. I added a button to the entry window. The button's command closes the window and does the get() function:
from Tkinter import *
def close_window():
global entry
entry = E.get()
root.destroy()
root = Tk()
E = tk.Entry(root)
E.pack(anchor = CENTER)
B = Button(root, text = "OK", command = close_window)
B.pack(anchor = S)
root.mainloop()
And that returned the desired value.

Your first problem is that the call to get in entry = E1.get() happens even before your program starts, so clearly entry will point to some empty string.
Your eventual second problem is that the text would anyhow be printed only after the mainloop finishes, i.e. you close the tkinter application.
If you want to print the contents of your Entry widget while your program is running, you need to schedule a callback. For example, you can listen to the pressing of the <Return> key as follows
import Tkinter as tk
def on_change(e):
print e.widget.get()
root = tk.Tk()
e = tk.Entry(root)
e.pack()
# Calling on_change when you press the return key
e.bind("<Return>", on_change)
root.mainloop()

from tkinter import *
import tkinter as tk
root =tk.Tk()
mystring =tk.StringVar(root)
def getvalue():
print(mystring.get())
e1 = Entry(root,textvariable = mystring,width=100,fg="blue",bd=3,selectbackground='violet').pack()
button1 = tk.Button(root,
text='Submit',
fg='White',
bg= 'dark green',height = 1, width = 10,command=getvalue).pack()
root.mainloop()

How to run a code whenever a Tkinter widget value changes?

I'm using Python and Tkinter, and I want the equivalent of onchange event from other toolkits/languages. I want to run code whenever the user updates the state of some widgets.
In my case, I have many Entry, Checkbutton, Spinbox and Radiobutton widgets. Whenever any one of these changes, I want to run my code (in this case, update a text box on the other panel).
(just remember that user may interact with those widgets using either mouse or keyboard, and even using Ctrl+V to paste text)

I think the correct method is to use trace on a tkinter variable that has been assigned to a widget.
For example...
import tkinter
root = tkinter.Tk()
myvar = tkinter.StringVar()
myvar.set('')
mywidget = tkinter.Entry(root,textvariable=myvar,width=10)
mywidget.pack()
def oddblue(a,b,c):
if len(myvar.get())%2 == 0:
mywidget.config(bg='red')
else:
mywidget.config(bg='blue')
mywidget.update_idletasks()
myvar.trace('w',oddblue)
root.mainloop()
The w in trace tells tkinter whenever somebody writes (updates) the variable, which would happen every time someone wrote something in the Entry widget, do oddblue. The trace always passes three values to whatever function you've listed, so you'll need to expect them in your function, hence a,b,c. I usually do nothing with them as everything I need is defined locally anyway. From what I can tell a is the variable object, b is blank (not sure why), and c is the trace mode (i.e.w).
For more info on tkinter variables check this out.

How I would solve this in Tcl would be to make sure that the checkbutton, spinbox and radiobutton widgets are all associated with an array variable. I would then put a trace on the array which would cause a function to be called each time that variable is written. Tcl makes this trivial.
Unfortunately Tkinter doesn't support working with Tcl arrays. Fortunately, it's fairly easy to hack in. If you're adventurous, try the following code.
From the full disclosure department: I threw this together this morning in about half an hour. I haven't actually used this technique in any real code. I couldn't resist the challenge, though, to figure out how to use arrays with Tkinter.
import Tkinter as tk
class MyApp(tk.Tk):
'''Example app that uses Tcl arrays'''
def __init__(self):
tk.Tk.__init__(self)
self.arrayvar = ArrayVar()
self.labelvar = tk.StringVar()
rb1 = tk.Radiobutton(text="one", variable=self.arrayvar("radiobutton"), value=1)
rb2 = tk.Radiobutton(text="two", variable=self.arrayvar("radiobutton"), value=2)
cb = tk.Checkbutton(text="checked?", variable=self.arrayvar("checkbutton"),
onvalue="on", offvalue="off")
entry = tk.Entry(textvariable=self.arrayvar("entry"))
label = tk.Label(textvariable=self.labelvar)
spinbox = tk.Spinbox(from_=1, to=11, textvariable=self.arrayvar("spinbox"))
button = tk.Button(text="click to print contents of array", command=self.OnDump)
for widget in (cb, rb1, rb2, spinbox, entry, button, label):
widget.pack(anchor="w", padx=10)
self.labelvar.set("Click on a widget to see this message change")
self.arrayvar["entry"] = "something witty"
self.arrayvar["radiobutton"] = 2
self.arrayvar["checkbutton"] = "on"
self.arrayvar["spinbox"] = 11
self.arrayvar.trace(mode="w", callback=self.OnTrace)
def OnDump(self):
'''Print the contents of the array'''
print self.arrayvar.get()
def OnTrace(self, varname, elementname, mode):
'''Show the new value in a label'''
self.labelvar.set("%s changed; new value='%s'" % (elementname, self.arrayvar[elementname]))
class ArrayVar(tk.Variable):
'''A variable that works as a Tcl array variable'''
_default = {}
_elementvars = {}
def __del__(self):
self._tk.globalunsetvar(self._name)
for elementvar in self._elementvars:
del elementvar
def __setitem__(self, elementname, value):
if elementname not in self._elementvars:
v = ArrayElementVar(varname=self._name, elementname=elementname, master=self._master)
self._elementvars[elementname] = v
self._elementvars[elementname].set(value)
def __getitem__(self, name):
if name in self._elementvars:
return self._elementvars[name].get()
return None
def __call__(self, elementname):
'''Create a new StringVar as an element in the array'''
if elementname not in self._elementvars:
v = ArrayElementVar(varname=self._name, elementname=elementname, master=self._master)
self._elementvars[elementname] = v
return self._elementvars[elementname]
def set(self, dictvalue):
# this establishes the variable as an array
# as far as the Tcl interpreter is concerned
self._master.eval("array set {%s} {}" % self._name)
for (k, v) in dictvalue.iteritems():
self._tk.call("array","set",self._name, k, v)
def get(self):
'''Return a dictionary that represents the Tcl array'''
value = {}
for (elementname, elementvar) in self._elementvars.iteritems():
value[elementname] = elementvar.get()
return value
class ArrayElementVar(tk.StringVar):
'''A StringVar that represents an element of an array'''
_default = ""
def __init__(self, varname, elementname, master):
self._master = master
self._tk = master.tk
self._name = "%s(%s)" % (varname, elementname)
self.set(self._default)
def __del__(self):
"""Unset the variable in Tcl."""
self._tk.globalunsetvar(self._name)
if __name__ == "__main__":
app=MyApp()
app.wm_geometry("400x200")
app.mainloop()

You have three different ways of doing the same:
1) Use the built-in "command" configuration, like the one you use on buttons
import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import messagebox as tk_messagebox
def spinbox1_callback():
tk_messagebox.showinfo("Spinbox callback", "You changed the spinbox.")
if __name__ == "__main__":
master = tk.Tk()
spinbox1 = tk.Spinbox(master, from_=0, to=10, command=spinbox1_callback)
spinbox1.pack()
tk.mainloop()
2) Use the event bindings to capture specific events:
http://effbot.org/tkinterbook/tkinter-events-and-bindings.htm
import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import messagebox as tk_messagebox
root = tk.Tk()
def callback(event):
tk_messagebox.showinfo("clicked at", event.x, event.y)
frame = tk.Frame(root, width=100, height=100)
frame.bind("<Button-1>", callback)
frame.pack()
root.mainloop()
3) "trace" changes on a tkinter variable classes, so if your widget uses a StringVar, BooleanVar, IntVar, or DoubleVar in the textvariable parameter, you will get a callback once it gets updated. https://effbot.org/tkinterbook/variable.htm
import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import messagebox as tk_messagebox
if __name__ == "__main__":
master = tk.Tk()
widget_contents = tk.StringVar()
widget_contents.set('')
some_entry = tk.Entry(master,textvariable=widget_contents,width=10)
some_entry.pack()
def entry1_callback(*args):
tk_messagebox.showinfo("entry callback", "You changed the entry %s" % str(args))
some_entry.update_idletasks()
widget_contents.trace('w',entry1_callback)
tk.mainloop()

It's quite late, but yet, somebody found something that might be useful.
The whole idea comes from #bryan Oakley's post
If I understand well, the main problem is to detech Entry widget's . To detect it in spinbox, Checkbutton and Radiobutton you can use command options when creating widget.
To catch the <onChange> in Entry widget you can use Bryan`s approach using Tcl, which generates this event. As I said, this is not my solution, I've only changed it slightly for this case.
For example:
import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import ttk
def generateOnChange(obj):
obj.tk.eval('''
proc widget_proxy {widget widget_command args} {
# call the real tk widget command with the real args
set result [uplevel [linsert $args 0 $widget_command]]
# generate the event for certain types of commands
if {([lindex $args 0] in {insert replace delete}) ||
([lrange $args 0 2] == {mark set insert}) ||
([lrange $args 0 1] == {xview moveto}) ||
([lrange $args 0 1] == {xview scroll}) ||
([lrange $args 0 1] == {yview moveto}) ||
([lrange $args 0 1] == {yview scroll})} {
event generate $widget <<Change>> -when tail
}
# return the result from the real widget command
return $result
}
''')
obj.tk.eval('''
rename {widget} _{widget}
interp alias {{}} ::{widget} {{}} widget_proxy {widget} _{widget}
'''.format(widget=str(obj)))
def onEntryChanged(event = None):
print("Entry changed")
def onCheckChanged(event = None):
print("Check button changed")
def onSpinboxChanged(event = None):
print("Spinbox changed")
def onRadioChanged(event = None):
print("Radio changed")
if __name__ == '__main__':
root = tk.Tk()
frame = tk.Frame(root, width=400, height=400)
entry = tk.Entry(frame, width=30)
entry.grid(row=0, column=0)
generateOnChange(entry)
entry.bind('<<Change>>', onEntryChanged)
checkbutton = tk.Checkbutton(frame, command=onCheckChanged)
checkbutton.grid(row=1, column=0)
spinbox = tk.Spinbox(frame, width=100, from_=1.0, to=100.0, command=onSpinboxChanged)
spinbox.grid(row=2, column=0)
phone = tk.StringVar()
home = ttk.Radiobutton(frame, text='Home', variable=phone, value='home', command=onRadioChanged)
home.grid(row=3, column=0, sticky=tk.W)
office = ttk.Radiobutton(frame, text='Office', variable=phone, value='office', command=onRadioChanged)
office.grid(row=3, column=0, sticky=tk.E)
frame.pack()
root.mainloop()
Of course modify it to create different callback for plenty of instances (as you mentioned in the question) is easy now.
I hope somebody will find it useful.

So far, I have not encountered any thing equivalent of onChange in Tkinter.
Widgets can be bound to the various events and I have done that explicitly.
http://effbot.org/tkinterbook/tkinter-events-and-bindings.htm