Tkinter Spinbox

Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create Tkinter Spinbox widgets.

Introduction to the Tkinter Spinbox widget

A Spinbox widget allows you to select a value from a set of values, which can include a range of numbers.

A Spinbox has an area for displaying the current value and a pair of arrowheads.

When you click the upward-pointing arrowhead, the Spinbox advances to the next higher value in the sequence.

If the current value reaches the maximum, you can set it to the minimum.

On the other hand, if you click the downward-pointing arrowhead, the Spinbox decreases the current value to the next lower value in the sequence.

If the current value reaches the lowest, you can set it to the maximum.

Additionally, you can directly enter a value into the Spinbox widget as you would with an Entry widget.

To create a Spinbox widget, you use the ttk.Spinbox constructor:

ttk.Spinbox(master, from_, to, textvariable, wrap)Code language: CSS (css)

In this syntax:

• The master is the parent widget of the Spinbox widget.
• The from_ is the minimum value. Because from is the Python keyword, it has to be suffixed with the underscore (_) to avoid the compilation error.
• The to value represents the maximum value.
• The textvariable specifies a StringVar or IntVar object of the Tkinter class that holds the current value of the Spinbox.
• The wrap is a Boolean value. If wrap is set to True, when the current value reaches the maximum value, it’s set to the lowest value if you click the upward-pointing arrowhead and vice versa. If wrap set to False, the widget sets the current value to the maximum if you click the downward-pointing arrowhead.

Note that the ttk.Spinbox has been available since Python 3.7. If you are using a lower version, you need to use the tk.Spinbox.

Getting the current value

To get the current value of the Spinbox, you can access the textvariable. For example:

current_value = tk.StringVar(value=0)
spin_box = ttk.Spinbox(
    container,
    from_=0,
    to=30,
    textvariable=current_value,
    wrap=True)Code language: PHP (php)

In this example, the current_value holds the current value of the Spinbox widget. You can obtain it by calling the get() method:

current_value.get()Code language: CSS (css)

Also, you can use the get() method of the Spinbox object:

spin_box.get()Code language: CSS (css)

Executing a function

To execute a function when the value of the Spinbox changes, you can assign that function to the command option. For example:

def value_changed():
    print(current_value.get())

current_value = tk.StringVar(value=0)

spin_box = ttk.Spinbox(
    container,
    from_=0,
    to=30,
    textvariable=current_value,
    command=value_changed)    Code language: Python (python)

In this example, the value_changed function will execute automatically whenever the value of the Spinbox changes.

Setting discrete steps

To set a list of discrete steps for a Spinbox, you assign a tuple of discrete numbers to the values option like this:

ttk.Spinbox(
    ...
    values=tuple
    ...
)    

Tkinter Spinbox widget examples

Let’s take some examples of creating a Spinbox widget.

1) A simple Tkinter Spinbox widget example

The following program illustrates how to use the Spinbox:

import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import ttk


# root window
root = tk.Tk()
root.geometry('300x200')
root.resizable(False, False)
root.title('Spinbox Demo')

# Spinbox
current_value = tk.StringVar(value=0)
spin_box = ttk.Spinbox(
    root,
    from_=0,
    to=30,
    textvariable=current_value,
    wrap=True)

spin_box.pack()

root.mainloop()Code language: Python (python)

Output:

2) Tkinter Spinbox with discrete steps

The following example shows how to create a Spinbox with discrete steps:

import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import ttk


# root window
root = tk.Tk()
root.geometry('300x200')
root.resizable(False, False)
root.title('Spinbox Demo')


# spinbox
current_value = tk.StringVar()
spin_box = ttk.Spinbox(
    root,
    from_=0,
    to=50,
    values=(0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50),
    textvariable=current_value,
    wrap=True)

spin_box.pack()

root.mainloop()Code language: Python (python)

Output:

Summary

• Use ttk.Spinbox(container, **options) to create a Spinbox.
• Set wrap=True to set the current value to the minimum value when it reaches the maximum value and vice versa.