6. Checkboxes in Tkinter
By Bernd Klein. Last modified: 01 Feb 2022.
Introduction
Checkboxes, also known as tickboxes or tick boxes or check boxes, are widgets that permit the user to make multiple selections from a number of different options. This is different to a radio button, where the user can make only one choice.
Usually, checkboxes are shown on the screen as square boxes that can contain white spaces (for false, i.e not checked) or a tick mark or X (for true, i.e. checked).
A caption describing the meaning of the checkbox is usually shown adjacent to the checkbox. The state of a checkbox is changed by clicking the mouse on the box. Alternatively it can be done by clicking on the caption, or by using a keyboard shortcut, for example, the space bar.
A Checkbox has two states: on or off.
The Tkinter Checkbutton widget can contain text, but only in a single font, or images, and a button can be associated with a Python function or method. When a button is pressed, Tkinter calls the associated function or method. The text of a button can span more than one line.
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Simple Example
The following example presents two checkboxes "male" and "female". Each checkbox needs a different variable name (IntVar()).
from tkinter import * master = Tk() var1 = IntVar() Checkbutton(master, text="male", variable=var1).grid(row=0, sticky=W) var2 = IntVar() Checkbutton(master, text="female", variable=var2).grid(row=1, sticky=W) mainloop()
If we start this script, we get the following window:
We can improve this example a little bit. First we add a Label to it. Furthermore we add two Buttons, one to leave the application and the other one to view the values var1 and var2.
from tkinter import *
master = Tk()
def var_states():
print("male: %d,\nfemale: %d" % (var1.get(), var2.get()))
Label(master, text="Your sex:").grid(row=0, sticky=W)
var1 = IntVar()
Checkbutton(master, text="male", variable=var1).grid(row=1, sticky=W)
var2 = IntVar()
Checkbutton(master, text="female", variable=var2).grid(row=2, sticky=W)
Button(master, text='Quit', command=master.quit).grid(row=3, sticky=W, pady=4)
Button(master, text='Show', command=var_states).grid(row=4, sticky=W, pady=4)
mainloop()
The result of the previous script looks like this:
If we check "male" and click on "Show", we get the following output:
male: 1, female: 0
Another Example with Checkboxes
We write an application, which depicts a list of programming languages, e.g. ['Python', 'Ruby', 'Perl', 'C++'] and a list of natural languages, e.g. ['English','German'] as checkboxes. So it's possible to choose programming languages and natural languages. Furthermore, we have two buttons: A "Quit" button for ending the application and a "Peek" button for checking the state of the checkbox variables.
#!/usr/bin/python3
from tkinter import *
class Checkbar(Frame):
def __init__(self, parent=None, picks=[], side=LEFT, anchor=W):
Frame.__init__(self, parent)
self.vars = []
for pick in picks:
var = IntVar()
chk = Checkbutton(self, text=pick, variable=var)
chk.pack(side=side, anchor=anchor, expand=YES)
self.vars.append(var)
def state(self):
return map((lambda var: var.get()), self.vars)
if __name__ == '__main__':
root = Tk()
lng = Checkbar(root, ['Python', 'Ruby', 'Perl', 'C++'])
tgl = Checkbar(root, ['English','German'])
lng.pack(side=TOP, fill=X)
tgl.pack(side=LEFT)
lng.config(relief=GROOVE, bd=2)
def allstates():
print(list(lng.state()), list(tgl.state()))
Button(root, text='Quit', command=root.quit).pack(side=RIGHT)
Button(root, text='Peek', command=allstates).pack(side=RIGHT)
root.mainloop()
The window looks like this:
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