Table of Contents
When to use the Checkbutton Widget Patterns
Methods Options
The Checkbutton widget is a standard Tkinter widgets used to implement on-off selections. Checkbuttons can contain text or images, and you can associate a Python function or method with each button. When the button is pressed, Tkinter automatically calls that function or method.
The button can only display text in a single font, but the text may span more than one line. In addition, one of the characters can be underlined, for example to mark a
keyboard shortcut. By default, the Tab key can be used to move to a button widget.
Each Checkbutton widget should be associated with a variable.
When to use the Checkbutton Widget
The checkbutton widget is choose between two distinct values (usually switching
something on or off). Groups of checkbuttons can be used to implement "many-of-many"
selections.
To handle "one-of-many" choices, use Radiobutton and Listbox widgets.
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Patterns
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Patterns
(Also see the Button patterns).
To use a Checkbutton, you must create a Tkinter variable:
var = IntVar()
c = Checkbutton(master, text="Expand", variable=var)
By default, the variable is set to 1 if the button is selected, and 0 otherwise. You can change these values using the onvalue and offvalue options. The variable doesn't have to be an integer variable:
If you need to keep track of both the variable and the widget, you can simplify your code somewhat by attaching the variable to the widget reference object.
v = IntVar()
c = Checkbutton(master, text="Don't show this again", variable=v) c.var = v
If your Tkinter code is already placed in a class (as it should be), it is probably cleaner to store the variable in an attribute, and use a bound method as callback:
def __init__(self, master):
self.var = IntVar()
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Patterns
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Methods
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Methods
The Checkbutton widgets support the standard Tkinter Widget interface, plus the following methods:
deselect()
Deselect the button.
flash()
Redraw the button several times, alternating between active and normal appearance.
invoke()
Call the command associated with the button.
select()
Select the button.
toggle()
Toggle the selection state.
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Options
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Options
The Checkbutton widgets support the following options:
Table 23-1. Checkbutton Options
Option Type Description
activebackground, activeforeground
color The color to use when the button is activated.
anchor constant Controls where in the button the text (or image) should be located. Use one of N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW, or CENTER. Default is CENTER. If you change this, it is probably a good idea to add some padding as well, using the padx and/or pady options.
background, foreground
color The button color. The default is platform specific.
bitmap bitmap The bitmap to display in the widget. If the image option is given, this option is
ignored.
The following bitmaps are available on all platforms: "error", "gray75", "gray50",
"gray25", "gray12", "hourglass", "info",
"questhead", "question", and "warning".
The following additional bitmaps are
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Options
available on the Macintosh only:
"document", "stationery", "edition",
"application", "accessory", "folder",
"pfolder", "trash", "floppy", "ramdisk",
"cdrom", "preferences", "querydoc", "stop",
"note", and "caution".
You can also load the bitmap from an XBM file. Just prefix the filename with an at-sign, for example "@sample.xbm".
borderwidth (bd) int The width of the button border. The default is platform specific.
command callback A function or method that is called when the button is pressed. The callback can be a function, bound method, or any other
callable Python object.
cursor cursor The cursor to show when the mouse is moved over the button.
default int If set, the button is a default button. Tk will indicate this by drawing a platform specific indicator (usually an extra border). NOTE:
The syntax has changed in 8.0b2!!!
disabledforeground color The color to use when the button is
disabled. The background is shown in the background color.
font font The font to use in the button. The button
can only contain text in a single font.
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Options
highlightbackground, highlightcolor
color Controls how to draw the focus highlight border. When the widget has focus, the border is drawn in the highlightcolor color. Otherwise, it is drawn in the
highlightbackground color. The defaults are system specific.
highlightthickness distance Controls the width of the focus highlight border. Default is typically one or two pixels.
image image The image to display in the widget. If specified, this takes precedence over the text and bitmap options.
indicatoron bool Controls if the indicator should be drawn or not. This is on by default.
Setting this option to false means that the relief will be used as the indicator. If the button is selected, it is drawn as SUNKEN instead of RAISED.
justify constant Defines how to align multiple lines of text.
Use LEFT, RIGHT, or CENTER.
offvalue, onvalue value The values corresponding to a non-checked or checked button, respectively. Defaults are 0 and 1.
padx, paxy distance Button padding. These options specify the horizontal and vertical padding between the text or image, and the button border.
relief constant Border decoration. This is usually FLAT for checkbuttons, unless they use the border as indicator (via the indicatoron option).
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Options
selectcolor color Color to use for the selector.
selectimage image Graphic image to use for the selector.
state constant The button state: NORMAL, ACTIVE or DISABLED. Default is NORMAL.
takefocus flag Indicates that the user can use the Tab key to move to this button. Default is an empty string, which means that the button accepts focus only if it has any keyboard bindings (default is on, in other words).
text string The text to display in the button. The text
can contain newlines. If the bitmap or image options are used, this option is ignored.
textvariable variable Associates a Tkinter variable (usually a StringVar) to the button. If the variable is changed, the button text is updated.
Also see the variable option.
underline int Default is -1 (don't underline).
variable variable Associates a Tkinter variable to the button.
When the button is pressed, the variable is toggled between offvalue and onvalue.
Explicit changes to the variable are automatically reflected by the buttons.
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Options
width, height distance The size of the button. If the button displays text, the size is given in text units. If the button displays an image, the size is given in pixels (or screen units). If the size is omitted, it is calculated based on the button contents.
wraplength distance Determines when a button's text should be wrapped into multiple lines. This is given in screen units. Default is no wrapping.
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The DoubleVar Class
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