tkinter showerror creating blank tk window

Question

I have a program that needs to display graphical error messages to users. It is a tkinter GUI, so I am using tkinter.messagebox.showerror

When I call showerror, it shows the error, but also creates a blank "tk" window, the kind created when an instance of the Tk class is called, like root = Tk().

from tkinter.messagebox import showerror
showerror(title = "Error", message = "Something bad happened")

Produces

Results Of Above Code

How can I make this blank window not appear?

possible duplicate of [How do I get rid of Python Tkinter root window?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1406145/how-do-i-get-rid-of-python-tkinter-root-window) — TigerhawkT3, Jun 16 '15 at 20:01
How are you using this code with the remaining of your code?...is it part of a class?..or what? — Iron Fist, Jun 16 '15 at 20:05
The example given was not in anything. You could say it was in `__main__`. The actual code was inside a function, that's all. — Ecko, Jun 16 '15 at 20:09

maccartm · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-16T22:12:22.413

11

from Tkinter import *
from tkMessageBox import showerror
Tk().withdraw()
showerror(title = "Error", message = "Something bad happened")

Calling Tk().withdraw() before showing the error message will hide the root window.

Note: from tkinter import * for Python 3.x

edited Jun 16 '15 at 22:12

answered Jun 16 '15 at 20:25

maccartm

2,035
14
23

Your import statement might work fine for Python 3.x actually, never used Tkinter on anything higher than 2.5, so if I'm incorrect about the import statements than disregard! – maccartm Jun 16 '15 at 20:30
As long as your imports worked with my solution then all is well, my code just shows what I had to use. – maccartm Jun 16 '15 at 22:02
If I give `Tk().withdraw()`, after my callback method is executed, program doesn't end. Any idea why? – Nagabhushan S N Dec 15 '18 at 06:46
1

Isn't there a need to destroy Tk() after `showerror` is closed? If so, the solution by @NagabhushanSN seems more complete. – Sun Bear Sep 19 '19 at 16:44

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 15 '18 at 07:11

As explained in this answer, Tkinter requires a root window before we create any more widgets/dialogs. If there is no root window, tkinter creates one. So, to make the blank window disappear, first we need to create a root window ourselves, hide it and destroy it once your dialog action is complete. Sample code below

from tkinter import Tk
from tkinter.messagebox import showerror

root = Tk()
root.withdraw()
showerror(title = "Error", message = "Something bad happened")
root.destroy()

Note: This is applicable when you just have to display a dialog and no other window exists.

tkinter showerror creating blank tk window

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