Tkinter Attributes: The Building Blocks of Tkinter GUIs


Tkinter attributes are properties used to customize the appearance and behavior of GUI widgets. These attributes can control various aspects such as size, color, text, and functionality.

These attributes can be initialized at the widget's creation and adjusted dynamically at any stage of the application's lifecycle to modify its appearance or behavior. 
bt1=tk.Button(my_w,text='I am a Button',bg='lightgreen',command=lambda:my_upd())
In above code while creating the above button, we have used some attributes and assigned values to it.

text: String to be written over the Button
bg: background colour of the Button
command: On Click event handling when the button is clicked


Using the above attributes the output of our window with the button is here.

Creating buttons with a set of attributes


Common List of Attributes 🔝

Here are some of the most common Tkinter widget attributes widely used :
  • text: The text displayed on the widget.
  • background: The background color of the widget.
  • foreground: The foreground color ( font ) of the widget.
  • font: The font used to display text on the widget.
  • relief: The type of border around the widget.
  • state: The state of the widget, which can be "normal", "disabled", or "active".
  • cursor: The cursor to display when the mouse is over the widget.
  • image: The image to display on the widget.
  • command: The function to call when the widget is clicked.

List of attributes of a Button 🔝

Here is a full list of attributes of a Button widget, we can use them based on our requirement. 
['activebackground', 'activeforeground', 'anchor', 'background', 
'bd', 'bg', 'bitmap', 'borderwidth', 'command', 'compound', 'cursor', 'default', 
'disabledforeground', 'fg', 'font', 'foreground', 'height', 'highlightbackground',
 'highlightcolor', 'highlightthickness', 'image', 'justify', 'overrelief', 
 'padx', 'pady', 'relief', 'repeatdelay', 'repeatinterval', 'state', 
 'takefocus', 'text', 'textvariable', 'underline', 'width', 'wraplength']


Attributes of Tkinter window, listing, reading and setting the values P-2

config() or configure() to update attribute value 🔝

To set the value of an attribute, you can use the `configure()` method. This method takes the attribute name and value as keyword arguments. For example, the following code sets the `text` attribute of a `Button` widget to "Click me!": 
button.configure(text="Click me!")
We can also set multiple attributes at once by using attribute names and values to the `configure()` method. For example, the following code sets the `text`, `background`, and `foreground` attributes of a `Button` widget: 
button.configure(text="Click me!", background="red", foreground="white")
Or we can create a dictionary of our attribute with values and use the same. 
import tkinter as tk
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("250x150")  

set1={'fg':'red','font':['Arial',18,'bold'],
      'text':'King & Queen','bg':'lightgreen'} #set of attributes with values 
button = tk.Button(my_w, text="Hello, world!")
button.grid(row=0,column=1,padx=30,pady=25)
button.config(**set1) # Update the attributes 

my_w.mainloop()
Using dictionary of Attributes with values in Tkinter

List of Attributes of a widget 🔝

We will get one dictionary of all attributes by using config(), so we can use the keys() method to get all the keys or options as a list of the object. 
print(button.config().keys())
The output is here . 
dict_keys(['activebackground', 'activeforeground', 'anchor', 
'background', 'bd', 'bg', 'bitmap', 'borderwidth', 'command', 'compound',
 'cursor', 'default', 'disabledforeground', 'fg', 'font', 'foreground', 
 'height', 'highlightbackground', 'highlightcolor', 'highlightthickness', 
 'image', 'justify', 'overrelief', 'padx', 'pady', 'relief', 'repeatdelay', 
 'repeatinterval', 'state', 'takefocus', 'text', 'textvariable', 'underline', 
 'width', 'wraplength'])

Reading Value of the attribute 🔝

Any particular attribute's value we can display like this. 
print(button1['width']) # value of the option = 20
using cget() 
print(button.cget('bg')) # Use the key or the attribute to get value

Listing all values of all the attributes of a widget 🔝 

for options in button1.config():
    print(options + ": " + str(button1[options]))
Output ( more are there ... ) 
activebackground: SystemButtonFace
activeforeground: SystemButtonText
anchor: center
background: green
bd: 2
bg: green
----
----
Listing of all attributes of parent window, here my_w is the root or master window. 
import tkinter as tk
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("250x150") 
 
for options in my_w.config():
    print(options + ": " + str(my_w[options]))

my_w.mainloop()

Checking availability of the attribute for the widget 🔝

All Attributes are not available with all the widgets.
Note that l2 is a Label and sb1 is a Spinbox here. 
if "bitmap" in l2.config():
#if "bitmap" in sb1.config():
    print("Attribute is available")
else:
    print("Attribute is Not available")

Example I : Enable or Disable a button 🔝


Managing state attribute of buttons to enable or disable along with text in Tkinter P-3


In this example, we dynamically modify the button's attributes after its initial creation.

By managing state attribute of a button we can Enable ( normal ) or Disable the button.
state attribute to disable a button in Tkinter
We can enable or disable a button and manage the text over the button by using the state and text attributes.

Here is the code to disable or enable 2nd button by using 1st button. The text also changes based on the status of the button.

state attribute can take three values: active, disabled, or normal 
import tkinter as tk
my_w=tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry('350x150')
my_w.title('www.plus2net.com')

def my_upd(): # triggered once the button is clicked
    if bt2['state']=='disabled':
        bt2['state']='normal' # Enable the button
        bt1['text']='Disable' # update the text
    else:
        bt2['state']='disabled' # Disable the button
        bt1['text']='Enable'  # Update the text

bt1=tk.Button(my_w,text='Enable',font=22,bg='lightyellow',
              command=lambda:my_upd())
bt1.grid(row=0,column=0,padx=50,pady=20)

bt2=tk.Button(my_w,text='Submit',font=22,state='disabled',
              activebackground='lightgreen')
bt2.grid(row=0,column=1,padx=20,pady=20)
my_w.mainloop()

Example II : Adding set of attributes to buttons 🔝

configure a set of buttons with different attributes
Out of a set of 10 students, update the attributes of students having keys in multiple of 3, these students should have different background and font colours than the rest of the students. 
import tkinter as tk
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("450x150")  
students={1:'King',2:'Queen',3:'Jack',4:'Ron',
          5:'Alex',6:'Ravi',7:'Mike',8:'Teek',9:'Pink',10:'Geek'}
set1={'fg':'red','bg':'lightgreen'} #set of attributes with values 
col=0 # starting value of column 
for j in students:
    e = tk.Button(my_w, text=students[j]) 
    e.grid(row=1,column=col,padx=4,pady=20) 
    if(j % 3==0): # divisible by 3
        e.config(**set1) # update the attributes 
    col=col+1 # increase the column value
my_w.mainloop()

Example III : Managing attributes on Button click 🔝

Using button click to update Attributes
import tkinter as tk
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("400x200")  # Size of the window 
my_w.title("www.plus2net.com")  # Adding a title
def my_upd():
    #str1=bt1.cget('text') # reading text 
    str1=bt1['text'] # reading text 
    #print(str1)
    if str1=='I am a button':
        #bt1['text']='Welcome' # setting value 
        bt1.config(text='Welcome') # setting value
        bt2.config(state='disabled',bg='blue') 
    else:
        #bt1['text']='I am a button'
        bt1.config(text='I am a button')
        bt2.config(state='normal',bg='lightblue')

bt1=tk.Button(my_w,text='I am a button',background='lightgreen',
              command=lambda:my_upd(),font=18,fg='red',width=15)
bt1.grid(row=0,column=0,padx=25,pady=50)

bt2=tk.Button(my_w,text='plus2net',background='lightblue',font=18,width=15)
bt2.grid(row=0,column=1,padx=25,pady=50)

my_w.mainloop()  # Keep the window open

Example IV : relief attribute of a Button 🔝

relief of a button
t1 = tk.Button(my_w,  width=10,height=1,overrelief='groove')
Food Menu system using Checkbutton indicatoron attribute

Simultaneously Configuring Multiple Tkinter Widgets 🔝

Tkinter does not provide a built-in way to configure multiple widgets simultaneously directly via a single config() call because the config() method is designed to be called on individual widget instances.

This example demonstrates how to simultaneously configure multiple Tkinter widgets using a custom function that applies the same settings to each widget in a list. It efficiently updates attributes like foreground and background colors across several widgets. 
import tkinter as tk
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("250x150") # width and height of window

def config_all(widgets, **options):
    for widget in widgets:
        widget.config(**options)

# Create multiple widgets
button1 = tk.Button(my_w, text="First one")
button1.grid(row=0,column=0,padx=5,pady=25)

button2 = tk.Button(my_w, text="I am 2nd")
button2.grid(row=0,column=1,padx=5,pady=25)

label3 = tk.Button(my_w, text="I am 3rd")
label3.grid(row=0,column=2,padx=5,pady=25)

# Configure multiple widgets simultaneously
config_all([button1, button2, label3], fg="blue", bg="yellow",font=22)

my_w.mainloop()

Difference Between Attributes and Options in Tkinter Widgets 🔝

  • Options:
    • Options are the initial properties you set when creating a widget. These are the parameters you pass directly in the widget's constructor to define its appearance or behavior.
    • Examples of options include text, font, bg, fg, command, etc., which are unique to each widget type.
    • You can also configure options later using the .config() or .configure() methods.
    • Example:
      • button = tk.Button(root, text="Click Me", bg="blue", fg="white")
  • Attributes:
    • Attributes refer to all properties or characteristics of a widget, including options and other parameters or methods associated with the widget.
    • Attributes are broader than options as they encompass options and the widget's state, methods, and properties.
    • For instance, .winfo_x() and .winfo_y() are attributes related to a widget’s position, while options are only concerned with appearance and behavior.
  • Conclusion: In practice, options are a subset of attributes. All options are attributes, but not all attributes are configurable options.

FAQ : Frequently Asked Questions 🔝

If you have any more questions then use the comment section below to post the same.

Questions 🔝


config() Validation Events

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