Tkinter entry widget .get doesn't work

Question

I am fairly new to python and am currently working on a school project, my aim is to create a search bar that can be used to search a data file, however I am struggling to get the search bar to work correctly. I am using the tkinter entry widget. When I call .get(), the string in the entry widget is not printed. Here is my code...

from tkinter import *

def searchButton():
        text = searched.get()
        print (text)

def drawStatWindow():
    global searched
    statWindow = Tk()
    statWindow.title("View Statistics")
    statWindow.config(bg = "grey")
    statWindow.geometry('800x900')

    searched = StringVar()
    searchBox = Entry(statWindow, textvariable = searched)
    searchBox.place(x= 450, y=50, width = 200, height = 24)
    enterButton = tkinter.Button(statWindow, text ="Enter", command =searchButton)
    enterButton.config(height = 1, width = 4)
    enterButton.place(x=652, y=50)

drawStatWindow()

When I type a string into the entry widget and press the enter button, nothing happens. Like I say I am not very experienced and this is my first project, but after reading about the tkinter entry widgets I can't understand why this won't work. I am using python V3.4.0 Thanks.

The code in your question won't run. Please take the time to post _actual_ code that illustrates the problem. — Bryan Oakley, Nov 06 '16 at 12:57

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 06 '16 at 11:55

Your code lacks a call to mainloop(). You could try adding it to the end of the drawStatWindow() function:

statWindow.mainloop()

You might want to restructure your code into a class. This allows you to avoid using global variables and generally provides better organisation for your application:

from tkinter import *

class App:
    def __init__(self, statWindow):
        statWindow.title("View Statistics")
        statWindow.config(bg = "grey")
        statWindow.geometry('800x900')

        self.searched = StringVar()
        searchBox = Entry(statWindow, textvariable=self.searched)
        searchBox.place(x= 450, y=50, width = 200, height = 24)
        enterButton = Button(statWindow, text ="Enter", command=self.searchButton)
        enterButton.config(height = 1, width = 4)
        enterButton.place(x=652, y=50)

    def searchButton(self):
        text = self.searched.get()
        print(text)


root = Tk()
app = App(root)
root.mainloop()

Thanks a lot, I have been wanting to restructure my code like this, however I've never used classes before so this gives me a good starting point. I will look into this more and try and restructure my whole program like this. — H_Lev1, Nov 06 '16 at 12:05

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 06 '16 at 14:09

You have to add mainloop() because tkinter needs it to run.

If you run code in IDLE which use tkinter then IDLE runs own mainloop() and code can work but normally you have to add mainloop() at the end.

And you have to remove tkinter in tkinter.Button.

from tkinter import *

def searchButton():
    text = searched.get()
    print(text)

def drawStatWindow():
    global searched

    statWindow = Tk()
    statWindow.title("View Statistics")
    statWindow.config(bg="grey")
    statWindow.geometry('800x900')

    searched = StringVar()

    searchBox = Entry(statWindow, textvariable=searched)
    searchBox.place(x= 450, y=50, width=200, height=24)

    # remove `tkinter` in `tkinter.Button`
    enterButton = Button(statWindow, text="Enter", command=searchButton)
    enterButton.config(height=1, width=4)
    enterButton.place(x=652, y=50)

    # add `mainloop()`
    statWindow.mainloop()

drawStatWindow()

score -2 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 06 '16 at 11:55

-2

No need to use textvariable, you should use this:

searchBox = Entry(statWindow)
searchBox.focus_set()
searchBox.place(x= 450, y=50, width = 200, height = 24)

then you will be able to use searchBox.get(), that will be a string.

answered Nov 06 '16 at 11:55

Karak

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Thanks this works fine! Just out of interest what is the focus_set() doing? – H_Lev1 Nov 06 '16 at 12:03
It returns the string written in the entry, I don't know better than that. – Karak Nov 06 '16 at 12:14
1

No, `focus_set()` does _not_ "return the string written in the entry". Like the name implies, it merely sets the focus into the entry. It has no effect on the result of `searchBox.get()`. – Bryan Oakley Nov 06 '16 at 12:55
Yes, it works. The wrong thing I said was it returns a string. You will recieve a string with get() – Karak Nov 06 '16 at 19:14

Tkinter entry widget .get doesn't work

3 Answers3

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