How to get the input from the Tkinter Text Widget

Question

How to get Tkinter input from the Text widget   EDIT  I asked this question to help others with the same problem - that is the reason why there is no example code  This issue had been troubling me for hours and I used this question to teach others  Please do not rate it as if it was a real question - the answer is the thing that matters

User · Answer

I did come also in search of how to get input data from the Text widget. Regarding the problem with a new line on the end of the string. You can just use .strip() since it is a Text widget that is always a string.

Also, I'm sharing code where you can see how you can create multiply Text widgets and save them in the dictionary as form data, and then by clicking the submit button get that form data and do whatever you want with it. I hope it helps others. It should work in any 3.x python and probably will work in 2.7 also.

from tkinter import *
from functools import partial

class SimpleTkForm(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.root = Tk()

    def myform(self):
        self.root.title('My form')
        frame = Frame(self.root, pady=10)
        form_data = dict()
        form_fields = ['username', 'password', 'server name', 'database name']
        cnt = 0
        for form_field in form_fields:
            Label(frame, text=form_field, anchor=NW).grid(row=cnt,column=1, pady=5, padx=(10, 1), sticky="W")
            textbox = Text(frame, height=1, width=15)
            form_data.update({form_field: textbox})
            textbox.grid(row=cnt,column=2, pady=5, padx=(3,20))
            cnt += 1

        conn_test = partial(self.test_db_conn, form_data=form_data)
        Button(frame, text='Submit', width=15, command=conn_test).grid(row=cnt,column=2, pady=5, padx=(3,20))
        frame.pack()
        self.root.mainloop()

    def test_db_conn(self, form_data):
        data = {k:v.get('1.0', END).strip() for k,v in form_data.items()}
        # validate data or do anything you want with it
        print(data)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    api = SimpleTkForm()
    api.myform()

User · Answer

I would argue that creating a simple extension of Text and turning text into a property is the cleanest way to go  You can then stick that extension in some file that you always import  and use it instead of the original Text widget  This way  instead of having to remember  write  repeat  etc all the hoops tkinter makes you jump through to do the simplest things  you have a butt-simple interface that can be reused in any project  You can do this for Entry  as well  but the syntax is slightly different  import tkinter as tk  root   tk Tk            class Text tk Text        property     def text self  - gt  str          return self get  1 0    end-1c                 text setter     def text self  value  - gt  None          self replace  1 0    end-1c   value               def   init   self  master    kwargs           tk Text   init   self  master    kwargs    Entry version of the same concept as above       class Entry tk Entry        property     def text self  - gt  str          return self get                 text setter     def text self  value  - gt  None          self delete 0   end           self insert 0  value               def   init   self  master    kwargs           tk Entry   init   self  master    kwargs               textbox   Text root  textbox grid    textbox text    quot this is text quot   set print textbox text             get    entry   Entry root  entry grid    entry text    this is text     set print entry text               get  root mainloop

User · Answer

To get Tkinter input from the text box in python 3 the complete student level program used by me is as under    Imports all     classes   atributes  and methods of tkinter into the  current workspace  from tkinter import                                          Creates an instance of the class tkinter Tk   This creates what is called the  root  window  By conventon   the root window in Tkinter is usually called  root    but you are free to call it by any other name   root   Tk   root title  how to get text from textbox                                         mystring   StringVar        define the function that the signup button will do def getvalue          print mystring get                                            Label root  text  Text to get   grid row 0  sticky W    label Entry root  textvariable   mystring  grid row 0  column 1  sticky E   entry textbox  WSignUp   Button root  text  print text   command getvalue  grid row 3  column 0  sticky W   button                                                  executes the mainloop  that is  the event loop  method of the root   object  The mainloop method is what keeps the root window visible    If you remove the line  the window created will disappear   immediately as the script stops running  This will happen so fast   that you will not even see the window appearing on your screen    Keeping the mainloop running also lets you keep the   program running until you press the close buton root mainloop

User · Answer

In order to obtain the string in a Text widget one can simply use get method defined for Text which accepts 1 to 2 arguments as start and end positions of characters  text widget object get start  end None   If only start is passed and end isn t passed it returns only the single character positioned at start  if end is passed as well  it returns all characters in between positions start and end as  string  There are also special strings  that are variables to the underlying Tk  One of them would be  quot end quot  or tk END which represents the variable position of the very last char in the Text widget  An example would be to returning all text in the widget  with text widget object get  1 0    end   or text widget object get  1 0    end-1c   if you don t want the last newline character  Demo See below demonstration that selects the characters in between the given positions with sliders  try      import tkinter as tk except      import Tkinter as tk   class Demo tk LabelFrame        quot  quot  quot      A LabeFrame that in order to demonstrate the string returned by the     get method of Text widget  selects the characters in between the     given arguments that are set with Scales       quot  quot  quot       def   init   self  master   args    kwargs           tk LabelFrame   init   self  master   args    kwargs          self start arg              self end arg   None         self position frames   dict           self  create widgets           self  layout           self update         def  create widgets self           self  is two args   tk Checkbutton self                                      text  quot Use 2 positional arguments    quot           self position frames  start     PositionFrame self                                      text  quot start         format line  column  quot           self position frames  end     PositionFrame    self                                      text  quot end         format line  column  quot           self text   TextWithStats self  wrap  none           self  widget configs         def  widget configs self           self text update callback   self update         self  is two args var   tk BooleanVar self  value False          self  is two args config variable self  is two args var                                      onvalue True  offvalue False          self  is two args  command     self  is two args handle         for  key in self position frames              self position frames  key  line slider  command     self update             self position frames  key  column slider  command     self update       def  layout self           self  is two args grid sticky  nsw   row 0  column 1          self position frames  start   grid sticky  nsew   row 1  column 0           self position frames  end   grid sticky  nsew   row 1  column 1          self text grid sticky  nsew   row 2  column 0                                                      rowspan 2  columnspan 2           grid size   self grid size           for  col in range  grid size 0                self grid columnconfigure  col  weight 1          for  row in range  grid size 1  - 1               self grid rowconfigure  row   1  weight 1        def  is two args handle self           self update arguments           if self  is two args var get                self position frames  end   grid sticky  nsew   row 1  column 1          else              self position frames  end   grid remove         def update self  event None            quot  quot  quot          Updates slider limits  argument values  labels representing the         get method call           quot  quot  quot           self update sliders           self update arguments         def update sliders self            quot  quot  quot          Updates slider limits based on what s written in the text and         which line is selected           quot  quot  quot           self  update line sliders           self  update column sliders         def  update line sliders self           if self text lines length              for  key in self position frames                  self position frames  key  line slider  state      normal                  self position frames  key  line slider  from      1                  no of lines   self text line count                 self position frames  key  line slider  to      no of lines         else              for  key in self position frames                  self position frames  key  line slider  state      disabled        def  update column sliders self           if self text lines length              for  key in self position frames                  self position frames  key  column slider  state      normal                  self position frames  key  column slider  from      0                  line no   int self position frames  key  line slider get   -1                  max line len   self text lines length  line no                  self position frames  key  column slider  to      max line len         else              for  key in self position frames                  self position frames  key  column slider  state      disabled        def update arguments self            quot  quot  quot          Updates the values representing the arguments passed to the get         method  based on whether or not the 2nd positional argument is         active and the slider positions           quot  quot  quot            start line no   self position frames  start   line slider get            start col no   self position frames  start   column slider get           self start arg    quot       quot  format  start line no   start col no          if self  is two args var get                 end line no   self position frames  end   line slider get                end col no   self position frames  end   column slider get               self end arg    quot       quot  format  end line no   end col no          else              self end arg   None         self  update method labels           self  select         def  update method labels self           if self end arg              for  key in self position frames                   string    quot text get             quot  format                                                  self start arg  self end arg                  self position frames  key  label  text      string         else               string    quot text get       quot  format self start arg              self position frames  start   label  text      string       def  select self           self text focus set           self text tag remove  sel    1 0    end           self text tag add  sel   self start arg  self end arg          if self end arg              self text mark set  insert   self end arg          else              self text mark set  insert   self start arg    class TextWithStats tk Text        quot  quot  quot      Text widget that stores stats of its content      self line count         the total number of lines     self lines length       the total number of characters per line     self update callback    can be set as the reference to the callback                             to be called with each update      quot  quot  quot       def   init   self  master  update callback None   args    kwargs           tk Text   init   self  master   args    kwargs          self  events      lt KeyPress gt                              lt KeyRelease gt                              lt ButtonRelease-1 gt                              lt ButtonRelease-2 gt                              lt ButtonRelease-3 gt                              lt Delete gt                              lt  lt Cut gt  gt                              lt  lt Paste gt  gt                              lt  lt Undo gt  gt                              lt  lt Redo gt  gt            self line count   None         self lines length   list           self update callback   update callback         self update stats           self bind events on widget to callback  self  events                                                  self                                                  self update stats         staticmethod     def bind events on widget to callback events  widget  callback            quot  quot  quot          Bind events on widget to callback           quot  quot  quot           for  event in events              widget bind  event  callback        def update stats self  event None            quot  quot  quot          Update self line count  self lines length stats and call         self update callback           quot  quot  quot            string   self get  1 0    end-1c            string lines    string splitlines           self line count   len  string lines          del self lines length            for  line in  string lines              self lines length append len  line           if self update callback              self update callback     class PositionFrame tk LabelFrame        quot  quot  quot      A LabelFrame that has two LabelFrames which has Scales       quot  quot  quot       def   init   self  master   args    kwargs           tk LabelFrame   init   self  master   args    kwargs          self  create widgets           self  layout         def  create widgets self           self line   SliderFrame self  orient  vertical   text  quot line  quot           self column   SliderFrame self  orient  horizontal   text  quot column  quot           self label   tk Label self  text  quot Label quot         def  layout self           self line grid sticky  ns   row 0  column 0  rowspan 2          self column grid sticky  ew   row 0  column 1  columnspan 2          self label grid sticky  nsew   row 1  column 1          self grid rowconfigure 1  weight 1          self grid columnconfigure 1  weight 1    class SliderFrame tk LabelFrame        quot  quot  quot      A LabelFrame that encapsulates a Scale       quot  quot  quot       def   init   self  master  orient   args    kwargs           tk LabelFrame   init   self  master   args    kwargs           self slider   tk Scale self  orient orient          self slider pack fill  both   expand True    if   name         main         root   tk Tk       demo   Demo root  text  quot text get start  end None  quot        with open   file    as f          demo text insert  1 0   f read        demo text update stats       demo pack fill  both   expand True      root mainloop

User · Answer

Lets say that you have a Text widget called my text widget   To get input from the my text widget you can use the get function   Let s assume that you have imported tkinter  Lets define my text widget first  lets make it just a simple text widget   my text widget   Text self    To get input from a text widget you need to use the get function  both  text and entry widgets have this   input   my text widget get     The reason we save it to a variable is to use it in the further process  for example  testing for what s the input

User · Answer

To get Tkinter input from the text box  you must add a few more attributes to the normal  get   function  If we have a text box myText Box  then this is the method for retrieving its input   def retrieve input        input   self myText Box get  1 0  END    The first part   1 0  means that the input should be read from line one  character zero  ie  the very first character   END is an imported constant which is set to the string  end   The END part means to read until the end of the text box is reached  The only issue with this is that it actually adds a newline to our input  So  in order to fix it we should change END to end-1c Thanks Bryan Oakley  The -1c deletes 1 character  while -2c would mean delete two characters  and so on   def retrieve input        input   self myText Box get  1 0   end-1c

User · Answer

I think this is a better way-  variable1 StringVar     Value saved here  def search      print variable1 get      return     ttk Entry mainframe  width 7  textvariable variable1  grid column 2  row 1   ttk Label mainframe  text  label   grid column 1  row 1   ttk Button mainframe  text  Search   command search  grid column 2  row 13    On pressing the button  the value in the text field would get printed  But make sure You import the ttk separately    The full code for a basic application is-  from tkinter import   from tkinter import ttk  root Tk   mainframe   ttk Frame root  padding  10 10 12 12   mainframe grid column 0  row 0  sticky  N  W  E  S   mainframe columnconfigure 0  weight 1  mainframe rowconfigure 0  weight 1    variable1 StringVar     Value saved here  def search      print variable1 get      return     ttk Entry mainframe  width 7  textvariable variable1  grid column 2  row 1   ttk Label mainframe  text  label   grid column 1  row 1   ttk Button mainframe  text  Search   command search  grid column 2  row 13   root mainloop

User · Answer

I faced the problem of gettng entire text from Text widget and following solution worked for me     txt get 1 0 END    Where 1 0 means first line  zeroth character  ie before the first   is the starting position and END is the ending position   Thanks to Alan Gauld in this link

User · Answer

Here is how I did it with python 3 5 2   from tkinter import   root Tk   def retrieve input        inputValue textBox get  1 0   end-1c       print inputValue   textBox Text root  height 2  width 10  textBox pack   buttonCommit Button root  height 1  width 10  text  Commit                        command lambda  retrieve input     command lambda  retrieve input    gt  gt  gt  just means do this when i press the button buttonCommit pack    mainloop     with that  when i typed  blah blah  in the text widget and pressed the button  whatever i typed got printed out  So i think that is the answer for storing user input from Text widget to variable

[python] How to get the input from the Tkinter Text Widget?

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