Unable to stop after method in tkinter

Question

I'm a python noob and apologize if the solution to my question is obvious. None of the other solutions I've tried seemed to work and I've been stumped on this issue for almost the entire day now. Anyway, I'm trying to create a simple auto clicker that clicks in random intervals with a given range. Functionally, I have everything working but I cannot get my program to stop clicking once it starts.

Here is my clicking function:

def start_clicking(event=None):
min = min_var.get()
max = max_var.get()

def report_click():
    text1.insert(tk.INSERT, "\nTime since last click: " + range_str_s + " (" + range_str_ms + ")\n")

text1.config(state="normal")
try:    # Show exception to user
    min = float(min)
    max = float(max)
except ValueError:
    text1.insert(tk.INSERT, "One or both of your inputs are invalid.")
if running:     # For some reason, this runs even though running is False. I only want this to run while running is true
    random_range = random.uniform(min, max)
    random_range_s_to_ms = int(random_range * 1000)     # Convert seconds to ms
    range_str_s = "{:,.2f}s".format(random_range)
    range_str_ms = "{:,.2f}ms".format(random_range_s_to_ms)
    print(running)
    report_click()
    pyautogui.click()
    root.after(random_range_s_to_ms, start_clicking)    # Recursively call start_clicking
text1.see("end")
text1.config(state="disabled")

This is my stop function:

def stop_clicking(event=None):
    text1.config(state="normal")
    text1.insert(tk.INSERT, "\nStopping...\n")
    global running
    running = False # This is not doing what I want it to do.
    text1.see("end")
    text1.config(state="disabled")

Some things I noted while trying to get this to work is that all of the code under my if running condition in my start_clicking() function still runs despite the fact that it's false (or so I think). I confirmed this by printing it into the console. Whether or not running is true or false seems to have no effect on my code. I commented this into in my program to clarify where the issue is.

Here is a minimal reproducible example:

import pyautogui, time, random, keyboard
import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()
root.geometry("530x320")

min_var = tk.StringVar()
max_var = tk.StringVar()

min_var_entry = tk.Entry(root, textvariable=min_var, font=('calibre', 10, 'normal'), width=8)
max_var_entry = tk.Entry(root, textvariable=max_var, font=('calibre', 10, 'normal'), width=8)

min_var_entry.insert(tk.INSERT, "0")
max_var_entry.insert(tk.INSERT, "1")

def start_clicking_task(event=None):
    global running
    running = True
    start_clicking()


def stop_clicking(event=None):
    text1.insert(tk.INSERT, "\nStopping...\n")
    global running
    running = False
    print("Running is currently ", running)
    text1.see("end")
    text1.config(state="disabled")


def force_close(even=None):
    start_btn.master.destroy()  # This destroys the entire window

def start_clicking_event(event=None):
    global running
    running = True

def start_clicking(event=None):
    global running
    running = True
    min = min_var.get()
    max = max_var.get()
    min = float(min)
    max = float(max)

    if running is True:
        random_range = random.uniform(min, max)
        random_range_s_to_ms = int(random_range * 1000)  # Convert seconds to ms
        range_str_s = "{:,.2f}s".format(random_range)
        range_str_ms = "{:,.2f}ms".format(random_range_s_to_ms)
        pyautogui.click()
        root.after(random_range_s_to_ms, start_clicking)    # This continues to run
        text1.insert(tk.INSERT, "\nTime since last click: " + range_str_s + " (" + range_str_ms + ")\n") # But this stops printing
        print("Running is currently ", running)


text1 = tk.Text(root, height=20, width=41, bg="#A4B0BD")

keyboard.add_hotkey('f2', start_clicking)
keyboard.add_hotkey('f3', stop_clicking)
keyboard.add_hotkey('esc', force_close)

text1.config(state="normal")
text1.grid(row=1, column=0, rowspan=10,padx=10)
range_label = tk.Label(root, text="Click Interval\n(seconds)", font=('calibre', 10, 'bold'), bg="#0A3D62", width=11, fg="#7ddeff")
min_label = tk.Label(root, text="Min", font=('calibre', 10, 'bold'), bg="#0A3D62", width=3, fg="#7ddeff")
max_label = tk.Label(root, text="Max", font=('calibre', 10, 'bold'), bg="#0A3D62", width=3, fg="#7ddeff")
start_btn = tk.Button(root, text='Start(F2)', bg="#2C3335", width=7, fg="#7ddeff", command=start_clicking_event)
stop_btn = tk.Button(root, text='Stop(F3)', bg="#2C3335", width=7, fg="#7ddeff", command=stop_clicking)
force_close_btn = tk.Button(root, text='Force close\n(Esc)', bg="#2C3335", width=8, fg="#7ddeff", command=force_close)
range_label.grid(row=1, column=2)
min_label.grid(row=2, column=1)
min_var_entry.grid(row=2, column=2)
max_label.grid(row=3, column=1)
max_var_entry.grid(row=3, column=2)
start_btn.grid(row=2, column=3, padx=3)
stop_btn.grid(row=3, column=3, padx=3)
force_close_btn.grid(row=8, column=2)

root.mainloop()

Answer 1

Your code will raise exception when start_clicking() is executed:

Exception in Tkinter callback
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python38\lib\tkinter\__init__.py", line 1883, in __call__
    return self.func(*args)
  File "D:\Temp\python\tmp2.py", line 68, in start_clicking
    if running:     # For some reason, this runs even though running is False. I want this to stop when running is false
NameError: name 'running' is not defined

So you need to initialise running before executing start_clicking(). I suggest to create another function which initialize running and execute start_clicking() when F2 is pressed or Start button is clicked:

def start_clicking_task(event=None):
    global running
    running = True
    start_clicking()

...

keyboard.add_hotkey('f2', start_clicking_task)

...

start_btn = tk.Button(root, text='Start(F2)', bg="#2C3335", width=7, fg="#7ddeff", command=start_clicking_task)