How can I insert a string in a Entry widget that is in the "readonly" state?

Question

I am trying to obtain an Entry that starts with an ellipsis ....

Here was the code I tried:

e = Entry(rootWin, width=60, state="readonly")
e.insert(0, "...")

I think the error is occurring because I am trying to insert text after the object has been classified as readonly.

How can I insert a string in a Tkinter Entry widget that is in the "readonly" state?

Possible duplicate http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3842155/ — Piccolo, Feb 13 '13 at 05:54
I'm needing to use the Entry object, not the Text object, since text object has no readonly state. — sixglazed, Feb 13 '13 at 06:00

score 15 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 13 '13 at 05:55

15

Use -textvariable option of the Entry:

eText = StringVar()
e = Entry(rootWin, width=60, state="readonly",textvariable=eText)
....
eText.set("...I'm not inserted, I've just appeared out of nothing.")

answered Feb 13 '13 at 05:55

Anton Kovalenko

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Worked for me in Python 3.12 – RixTheTyrunt Oct 31 '22 at 16:05

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 13 '13 at 05:58

14

This seems to work for me:

import Tkinter as tk

r = tk.Tk()

e = tk.Entry(r,width=60)
e.insert(0,'...')
e.configure(state='readonly')
e.grid(row=0,column=0)

r.mainloop()

answered Feb 13 '13 at 05:58

mgilson

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score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 13 '13 at 12:03

8

The solution is simple: temporarily set the state to normal, insert the text, then set it to disabled.

answered Feb 13 '13 at 12:03

Bryan Oakley

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1

Ugly, but true. I tried setting the text while in state disabled, or readonly. Neither are possible. It has to be in state normal. Anton's answer eliminates this hassle of switching back and forth, but creates another in the sense that you need a proxy of sorts. – BuvinJ Feb 02 '16 at 23:00

How can I insert a string in a Entry widget that is in the "readonly" state?

3 Answers3