listbox

Section: Tk Built-In Commands (n)
Updated: 8.4
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NAME

listbox - Create and manipulate 'listbox' item list widgets

SYNOPSIS

listbox pathName ?options?

STANDARD OPTIONS


-background-borderwidth-cursor
-disabledforeground-exportselection-font
-foreground-highlightbackground-highlightcolor
-highlightthickness-justify-relief
-selectbackground-selectborderwidth-selectforeground
-setgrid   -takefocus-xscrollcommand
-yscrollcommand

See the options manual entry for details on the standard options.

WIDGET-SPECIFIC OPTIONS


Command-Line Name:-activestyle
Database Name:activeStyle
Database Class:ActiveStyle

: Specifies the style in which to draw the active element. This must be one of dotbox (show a focus ring around the active element), none (no special indication of active element) or underline (underline the active element). The default is underline on Windows, and dotbox elsewhere.


Command-Line Name:-height
Database Name:height
Database Class:Height

: Specifies the desired height for the window, in lines. If zero or less, then the desired height for the window is made just large enough to hold all the elements in the listbox.


Command-Line Name:-listvariable
Database Name:listVariable
Database Class:Variable

: Specifies the name of a global variable. The value of the variable is a list to be displayed inside the widget; if the variable value changes then the widget will automatically update itself to reflect the new value. Attempts to assign a variable with an invalid list value to -listvariable will cause an error. Attempts to unset a variable in use as a -listvariable will fail but will not generate an error.


Command-Line Name:-selectmode
Database Name:selectMode
Database Class:SelectMode

: Specifies one of several styles for manipulating the selection. The value of the option may be arbitrary, but the default bindings expect it to be either single, browse, multiple, or extended; the default value is browse.


Command-Line Name:-state
Database Name:state
Database Class:State

: Specifies one of two states for the listbox: normal or disabled. If the listbox is disabled then items may not be inserted or deleted, items are drawn in the -disabledforeground color, and selection cannot be modified and is not shown (though selection information is retained).


Command-Line Name:-width
Database Name:width
Database Class:Width

Specifies the desired width for the window in characters. If the font does not have a uniform width then the width of the character ``0'' is used in translating from character units to screen units. If zero or less, then the desired width for the window is made just large enough to hold all the elements in the listbox.

DESCRIPTION

The listbox command creates a new window (given by the pathName argument) and makes it into a listbox widget. Additional options, described above, may be specified on the command line or in the option database to configure aspects of the listbox such as its colors, font, text, and relief. The listbox command returns its pathName argument. At the time this command is invoked, there must not exist a window named pathName, but pathName's parent must exist.

A listbox is a widget that displays a list of strings, one per line. When first created, a new listbox has no elements. Elements may be added or deleted using widget commands described below. In addition, one or more elements may be selected as described below. If a listbox is exporting its selection (see -exportselection option), then it will observe the standard X11 protocols for handling the selection. Listbox selections are available as type STRING; the value of the selection will be the text of the selected elements, with newlines separating the elements.

It is not necessary for all the elements to be displayed in the listbox window at once; commands described below may be used to change the view in the window. Listboxes allow scrolling in both directions using the standard -xscrollcommand and -yscrollcommand options. They also support scanning, as described below.

INDICES

Many of the widget commands for listboxes take one or more indices as arguments. An index specifies a particular element of the listbox, in any of the following ways:

number: Specifies the element as a numerical index, where 0 corresponds to the first element in the listbox.
active: Indicates the element that has the location cursor. This element will be displayed as specified by -activestyle when the listbox has the keyboard focus, and it is specified with the activate widget command.
anchor: Indicates the anchor point for the selection, which is set with the selection anchor widget command.
end: Indicates the end of the listbox. For most commands this refers to the last element in the listbox, but for a few commands such as index and insert it refers to the element just after the last one.
@x,y: Indicates the element that covers the point in the listbox window specified by x and y (in pixel coordinates). If no element covers that point, then the closest element to that point is used.

In the widget command descriptions below, arguments named index, first, and last always contain text indices in one of the above forms.

WIDGET COMMAND

The listbox command creates a new Tcl 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 behavior of the command. The following commands are possible for listbox widgets:

pathName activate index

Sets the active element to the one indicated by index. If index is outside the range of elements in the listbox then the closest element is activated. The active element is drawn as specified by -activestyle when the widget has the input focus, and its index may be retrieved with the index active.

pathName bbox index

Returns a list of four numbers describing the bounding box of the text in the element 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 text (specified in pixels relative to the widget) and the last two elements give the width and height of the area, in pixels. If no part of the element given by index is visible on the screen, or if index refers to a non-existent element, then the result is an empty string; if the element is partially visible, the result gives the full area of the element, including any parts that are not visible.

pathName cget option

Returns the current value of the configuration option given by option. Option may have any of the values accepted by the listbox command.

pathName configure ?option? ?value option value ...?

Query or modify the configuration options of the widget. If no option is specified, returns a list describing all of the available options for pathName (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of this list). If option is specified with no value, then the command returns a list describing the one named option (this list will be identical to the corresponding sublist of the value returned if no option is specified). 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 listbox command.

pathName curselection

Returns a list containing the numerical indices of all of the elements in the listbox that are currently selected. If there are no elements selected in the listbox then an empty string is returned.

pathName delete first ?last?

Deletes one or more elements of the listbox. First and last are indices specifying the first and last elements in the range to delete. If last is not specified it defaults to first, i.e. a single element is deleted.

pathName get first ?last?

If last is omitted, returns the contents of the listbox element indicated by first, or an empty string if first refers to a non-existent element. If last is specified, the command returns a list whose elements are all of the listbox elements between first and last, inclusive. Both first and last may have any of the standard forms for indices.

pathName index index

Returns the integer index value that corresponds to index. If index is end the return value is a count of the number of elements in the listbox (not the index of the last element).

pathName insert index ?element element ...?

Inserts zero or more new elements in the list just before the element given by index. If index is specified as end then the new elements are added to the end of the list. Returns an empty string.

pathName itemcget index option

Returns the current value of the item configuration option given by option. Option may have any of the values accepted by the itemconfigure command.

pathName itemconfigure index ?option? ?value? ?option value ...?

Query or modify the configuration options of an item in the listbox. If no option is specified, returns a list describing all of the available options for the item (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of this list). If option is specified with no value, then the command returns a list describing the one named option (this list will be identical to the corresponding sublist of the value returned if no option is specified). 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. The following options are currently supported for items:

-background color: Color specifies the background color to use when displaying the item. It may have any of the forms accepted by Tk_GetColor.
-foreground color: Color specifies the foreground color to use when displaying the item. It may have any of the forms accepted by Tk_GetColor.
-selectbackground color: color specifies the background color to use when displaying the item while it is selected. It may have any of the forms accepted by Tk_GetColor.
-selectforeground color: color specifies the foreground color to use when displaying the item while it is selected. It may have any of the forms accepted by Tk_GetColor.

pathName nearest y

Given a y-coordinate within the listbox window, this command returns the index of the (visible) listbox element nearest to that y-coordinate.

pathName scan option args

This command is used to implement scanning on listboxes. It has two forms, depending on option:

pathName scan mark x y: Records x and y and the current view in the listbox window; used in conjunction with later scan dragto commands. Typically this command is associated with a mouse button press in the widget. It returns an empty string.
pathName scan dragto x y.: This command computes the difference between its x and y arguments and the x and y arguments to the last scan mark command for the widget. It then adjusts the view by 10 times the difference in coordinates. This command is typically associated with mouse motion events in the widget, to produce the effect of dragging the list at high speed through the window. The return value is an empty string.

pathName see index

Adjust the view in the listbox so that the element given by index is visible. If the element is already visible then the command has no effect; if the element is near one edge of the window then the listbox scrolls to bring the element into view at the edge; otherwise the listbox scrolls to center the element.

pathName selection option arg

This command is used to adjust the selection within a listbox. It has several forms, depending on option:

pathName selection anchor index: Sets the selection anchor to the element given by index. If index refers to a non-existent element, then the closest element is used. The selection anchor is the end of the selection that is fixed while dragging out a selection with the mouse. The index anchor may be used to refer to the anchor element.
pathName selection clear first ?last?: If any of the elements between first and last (inclusive) are selected, they are deselected. The selection state is not changed for elements outside this range.
pathName selection includes index: Returns 1 if the element indicated by index is currently selected, 0 if it is not.
pathName selection set first ?last?: Selects all of the elements in the range between first and last, inclusive, without affecting the selection state of elements outside that range.

pathName size

Returns a decimal string indicating the total number of elements in the listbox.

pathName xview ?args

This command is used to query and change the horizontal position of the information in the widget's window. It can take any of the following forms:

pathName xview: 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 listbox'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.
pathName xview index: Adjusts the view in the window so that the character position given by index is displayed at the left edge of the window. Character positions are defined by the width of the character 0.
pathName xview moveto fraction: Adjusts the view in the window so that fraction of the total width of the listbox text is off-screen to the left. fraction must be a fraction between 0 and 1.
pathName xview scroll number what: 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 or an abbreviation of one of these. If what is units, the view adjusts left or right by number character units (the width of the 0 character) 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.

pathName yview ?args?

This command is used to query and change the vertical position of the text in the widget's window. It can take any of the following forms:

pathName yview: Returns a list containing two elements, both of which are real fractions between 0 and 1. The first element gives the position of the listbox element at the top of the window, relative to the listbox as a whole (0.5 means it is halfway through the listbox, for example). The second element gives the position of the listbox element just after the last one in the window, relative to the listbox as a whole. These are the same values passed to scrollbars via the -yscrollcommand option.
pathName yview index: Adjusts the view in the window so that the element given by index is displayed at the top of the window.
pathName yview moveto fraction: Adjusts the view in the window so that the element given by fraction appears at the top of the window. Fraction is a fraction between 0 and 1; 0 indicates the first element in the listbox, 0.33 indicates the element one-third the way through the listbox, and so on.
pathName yview scroll number what: This command adjusts the view in the window up or down according to number and what. Number must be an integer. What must be either units or pages. If what is units, the view adjusts up or down by number lines; if it is pages then the view adjusts by number screenfuls. If number is negative then earlier elements become visible; if it is positive then later elements become visible.

DEFAULT BINDINGS

Tk automatically creates class bindings for listboxes that give them Motif-like behavior. Much of the behavior of a listbox is determined by its -selectmode option, which selects one of four ways of dealing with the selection.

If the selection mode is single or browse, at most one element can be selected in the listbox at once. In both modes, clicking button 1 on an element selects it and deselects any other selected item. In browse mode it is also possible to drag the selection with button 1. On button 1, the listbox will also take focus if it has a normal state.

If the selection mode is multiple or extended, any number of elements may be selected at once, including discontiguous ranges. In multiple mode, clicking button 1 on an element toggles its selection state without affecting any other elements. In extended mode, pressing button 1 on an element selects it, deselects everything else, and sets the anchor to the element under the mouse; dragging the mouse with button 1 down extends the selection to include all the elements between the anchor and the element under the mouse, inclusive.

Most people will probably want to use browse mode for single selections and extended mode for multiple selections; the other modes appear to be useful only in special situations.

Any time the set of selected item(s) in the listbox is updated by the user through the keyboard or mouse, the virtual event <<ListboxSelect>> will be generated. This virtual event will not be generated when adjusting the selection with the pathName selection command. It is easiest to bind to this event to be made aware of any user changes to listbox selection.

In addition to the above behavior, the following additional behavior is defined by the default bindings:

[1]: In extended mode, the selected range can be adjusted by pressing button 1 with the Shift key down: this modifies the selection to consist of the elements between the anchor and the element under the mouse, inclusive. The un-anchored end of this new selection can also be dragged with the button down.
[2]: In extended mode, pressing button 1 with the Control key down starts a toggle operation: the anchor is set to the element under the mouse, and its selection state is reversed. The selection state of other elements is not changed. If the mouse is dragged with button 1 down, then the selection state of all elements between the anchor and the element under the mouse is set to match that of the anchor element; the selection state of all other elements remains what it was before the toggle operation began.
[3]: If the mouse leaves the listbox window with button 1 down, the window scrolls away from the mouse, making information visible that used to be off-screen on the side of the mouse. The scrolling continues until the mouse re-enters the window, the button is released, or the end of the listbox is reached.
[4]: Mouse button 2 may be used for scanning. If it is pressed and dragged over the listbox, the contents of the listbox drag at high speed in the direction the mouse moves.
[5]: If the Up or Down key is pressed, the location cursor (active element) moves up or down one element. If the selection mode is browse or extended then the new active element is also selected and all other elements are deselected. In extended mode the new active element becomes the selection anchor.
[6]: In extended mode, Shift-Up and Shift-Down move the location cursor (active element) up or down one element and also extend the selection to that element in a fashion similar to dragging with mouse button 1.
[7]: The Left and Right keys scroll the listbox view left and right by the width of the character 0. Control-Left and Control-Right scroll the listbox view left and right by the width of the window. Control-Prior and Control-Next also scroll left and right by the width of the window.
[8]: The Prior and Next keys scroll the listbox view up and down by one page (the height of the window).
[9]: The Home and End keys scroll the listbox horizontally to the left and right edges, respectively.
[10]: Control-Home sets the location cursor to the first element in the listbox, selects that element, and deselects everything else in the listbox.
[11]: Control-End sets the location cursor to the last element in the listbox, selects that element, and deselects everything else in the listbox.
[12]: In extended mode, Control-Shift-Home extends the selection to the first element in the listbox and Control-Shift-End extends the selection to the last element.
[13]: In multiple mode, Control-Shift-Home moves the location cursor to the first element in the listbox and Control-Shift-End moves the location cursor to the last element.
[14]: The space and Select keys make a selection at the location cursor (active element) just as if mouse button 1 had been pressed over this element.
[15]: In extended mode, Control-Shift-space and Shift-Select extend the selection to the active element just as if button 1 had been pressed with the Shift key down.
[16]: In extended mode, the Escape key cancels the most recent selection and restores all the elements in the selected range to their previous selection state.
[17]: Control-slash selects everything in the widget, except in single and browse modes, in which case it selects the active element and deselects everything else.
[18]: Control-backslash deselects everything in the widget, except in browse mode where it has no effect.
[19]: The F16 key (labelled Copy on many Sun workstations) or Meta-w copies the selection in the widget to the clipboard, if there is a selection.

The behavior of listboxes can be changed by defining new bindings for individual widgets or by redefining the class bindings.

KEYWORDS

listbox, widget