ENTRY(9) Kernel Developer's Manual ENTRY(9)

entry - Create and manipulate entry widgets

entry pathName ?options?

-background  -highlightcolor     -selectbackground
-borderwidth -highlightthickness -selectforeground
-font        -justify            -takefocus
-foreground  -relief             -xscrollcommand

If this option is specified, then the true contents of the entry are not displayed in the window. Instead, each character in the entry's value will be displayed as the first character in the value of this option, such as ``*''. This is useful, for example, if the entry is to be used to enter a password.
Specifies one of two states for the entry: normal or disabled. If the entry is disabled then the value may not be changed using widget commands and no insertion cursor will be displayed, even if the input focus is in the widget.
Specifies an integer value indicating the desired width of the entry window.

The entry command creates a new window (given by the pathName argument) and makes it into an entry widget. Additional options, described above, may be specified on the command line to configure aspects of the entry such as its colours, font, and relief. The entry command returns its pathName argument. At the time this command is invoked, there must not exist a window named pathName.

An entry is a widget that displays a one-line text string and allows that string to be edited using widget commands described below, which are typically bound to keystrokes and mouse actions. When first created, an entry's string is empty. A portion of the entry may be selected as described below. Entries observe the standard Tk rules for dealing with the input focus. When an entry has the input focus it displays an insertion cursor to indicate where new characters will be inserted.

Entries are capable of displaying strings that are too long to fit entirely within the widget's window. In this case, only a portion of the string will be displayed; commands described below may be used to change the view in the window. Entries use the standard xscrollcommand mechanism for interacting with scrollbars (see the description of the xscrollcommand option for details).

The entry command creates a new Tk command whose name is pathName. This command may be used to invoke various operations on the widget. It has the following general form:

pathName option ?arg arg ...?
Option and the args determine the exact behaviour of the command.

Many of the widget commands for entries take one or more indices as arguments. An index specifies a particular character in the entry's string, in any of the following ways:

Specifies the character as a numerical index, where 0 corresponds to the first character in the string.
anchor
Indicates the anchor point for the selection, which is set with the select from and select adjust widget commands.
end
Indicates the character just after the last one in the entry's string. This is equivalent to specifying a numerical index equal to the length of the entry's string.
insert
Indicates the character adjacent to and immediately following the insertion cursor.
sel.first
Indicates the first character in the selection. It is an error to use this form if the selection isn't in the entry window.
sel.last
Indicates the character just after the last one in the selection. It is an error to use this form if the selection isn't in the entry window.
@number
In this form, number is treated as an x-coordinate in the entry's window; the character spanning that x-coordinate is used. For example, ``@0'' indicates the left-most character in the window.

The following commands are possible for entry widgets:

Returns a list of four numbers describing the bounding box of the character given by index. The first two elements of the list give the x and y coordinates of the upper-left corner of the screen area covered by the character (in pixels relative to the widget) and the last two elements give the width and height of the character, in pixels. The bounding box may refer to a region outside the visible area of the window.
Returns the current value of the configuration option given by option. Option may have any of the values accepted by the entry command.
Query or modify the configuration options of the widget. If no option is specified, returns a list of all of the available options for pathName. If one or more option-value pairs are specified, then the command modifies the given widget option(s) to have the given value(s); in this case the command returns an empty string. Option may have any of the values accepted by the entry command.
Delete one or more elements of the entry. First is the index of the first character to delete, and last is the index of the character just after the last one to delete. If last isn't specified it defaults to first+1, i.e. a single character is deleted. This command returns an empty string.
Returns the entry's string.
Arrange for the insertion cursor to be displayed just before the character given by index. Returns an empty string.
Returns the numerical index corresponding to index.
Insert the characters of string just before the character indicated by index. Returns an empty string.
Adjusts the view in the window so that the character given by index is completely visible.
This command is used to adjust the selection within an entry. It has several forms, depending on option:
Locate the end of the selection nearest to the character given by index, and adjust that end of the selection to be at index (i.e including but not going beyond index). The other end of the selection is made the anchor point for future select to commands. If the selection isn't currently in the entry, then a new selection is created to include the characters between index and the most recent selection anchor point, inclusive. Returns an empty string.
Clear the selection if it is currently in this widget. If the selection isn't in this widget then the command has no effect. Returns an empty string.
Set the selection anchor point to just before the character given by index. Doesn't change the selection. Returns an empty string.
Returns 1 if there are characters selected in the entry, 0 if nothing is selected.
Sets the selection to include the characters starting with the one indexed by start and ending with the one just before end. If end refers to the same character as start or an earlier one, then the entry's selection is cleared.
If index is before the anchor point, set the selection to the characters from index up to but not including the anchor point. If index is the same as the anchor point, do nothing. If index is after the anchor point, set the selection to the characters from the anchor point up to but not including index. The anchor point is determined by the most recent select from or select adjust command in this widget. If the selection isn't in this widget then a new selection is created using the most recent anchor point specified for the widget. Returns an empty string.
This command is used to query and change the horizontal position of the text in the widget's window. It can take any of the following forms:
Returns a list containing two elements. Each element is a real fraction between 0 and 1; together they describe the horizontal span that is visible in the window. For example, if the first element is .2 and the second element is .6, 20% of the entry's text is off-screen to the left, the middle 40% is visible in the window, and 40% of the text is off-screen to the right. These are the same values passed to scrollbars via the -xscrollcommand option.
Adjusts the view in the window so that the character given by index is displayed at the left edge of the window.
Adjusts the view in the window so that the character fraction of the way through the text appears at the left edge of the window. Fraction must be a fraction between 0 and 1.
This command shifts the view in the window left or right according to number and what. Number must be an integer. What must be either units or pages. If what is units, the view adjusts left or right by number average-width characters on the display; if it is pages then the view adjusts by number screenfuls. If number is negative then characters farther to the left become visible; if it is positive then characters farther to the right become visible.

Tk automatically creates bindings for entries that give them the following default behaviour. In the descriptions below, ``word'' refers to a contiguous group of letters, digits, or ``_'' characters, or any single character other than these.

[1]
Clicking mouse button 1 positions the insertion cursor just before the character underneath the mouse cursor, sets the input focus to this widget, and clears any selection in the widget. Dragging with mouse button 1 strokes out a selection between the insertion cursor and the character under the mouse.
[2]
Double-clicking with mouse button 1 selects the word under the mouse and positions the insertion cursor at the beginning of the word.
[3]
If any normal printing characters are typed in an entry, the current selection is deleted, and they are inserted at the point of the insertion cursor
[4]
The view in the entry can be adjusted by dragging with mouse button 2.
[5]
The Left and Right keys move the insertion cursor one character to the left or right; they also clear any selection in the entry and set the selection anchor. Control-b and Control-f behave the same as Left and Right, respectively.
[6]
The Home key, or Control-a, will move the insertion cursor to the beginning of the entry and clear any selection in the entry.
[7]
The End key, or Control-e, will move the insertion cursor to the end of the entry and clear any selection in the entry.
[8]
Control-/ selects all the text in the entry.
[9]
Control-\ clears any selection in the entry.
[10]
The Delete key deletes the selection, if there is one in the entry. If there is no selection, it deletes the character to the right of the insertion cursor.
[11]
The BackSpace key and Control-h delete the selection, if there is one in the entry. If there is no selection, it deletes the character to the left of the insertion cursor.
[12]
Control-d deletes the character to the right of the insertion cursor.
[13]
Control-k deletes all the characters to the right of the insertion cursor.
[14]
Control-w deletes the word to the left of the insertion cursor.

If the entry is disabled using the -state option, then the entry's view can still be adjusted and text in the entry can still be selected, but no insertion cursor will be displayed and no text modifications will take place.

The behaviour of entries can be changed by defining new bindings for individual widgets.

options (9), types (9)