Autocomplete using Entry and Listbox in Tkinter window for string matching options

Tkinter Autocomplete by using Entry and Listbox options from List using regular expression matching

Using Entry box and Listbox we can create one Autocomplete ( suggested matching string as user enters string ).

Part I : Design Layout, adding options and selection of options
part II : Navigation through options, selection of option by right arrow and enter key
Part III : Managing data source to use Google sheets, MySQL , CSV file etc.

Regular expression and matching string

We will import the regular expression library. As we have used one list as data source, we will loop through each element and check by matching using regular expression match(). This will return us true for matching elements and these matching elements we will use as options of the listbox.

def get_data(*args): # populate the Listbox with matching options 
    search_str=e1.get() # user entered string 
    l1.delete(0,END)     # Delete all elements of Listbox
    for element in my_list:
        if(re.match(search_str,element,re.IGNORECASE)):
            l1.insert(tk.END,element)#add matching options to Listbox

Using bind events

We can select one option of the Listbox and on selection of option we will trigger the function to update the data in Entry box.

def my_upd(my_widget): # On selection of option 
    my_w = my_widget.widget
    index = int(my_w.curselection()[0]) # position of selection
    value = my_w.get(index) # selected value 
    e1_str.set(value) # set value for string variable of Entry 
    l1.delete(0,END)     # Delete all elements of Listbox

The above function is triggered on bind events

#l1.bind('<<ListboxSelect>>', my_upd)
e1.bind('<Down>', my_down) # down arrow key is pressed
l1.bind('<Right>', my_upd) # right arrow key is pressed
l1.bind('<Return>', my_upd)# return key is pressed

When down arrow key is pressed the focus shift to Listbox and the first option is selected.

def my_down(my_widget): # down arrow is clicked 
    l1.focus()  # move focus to Listbox
    l1.selection_set(0) # select the first option

Full code is here

import tkinter as tk
import re # import regular expression library 
from tkinter import END
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("410x400")  # Size of the window 
my_w.title("plus2net.com")  # Adding a title
font1=('Times',24,'bold') # font size and style 
l0=tk.Label(text='Autocomplete',font=font1) # adding label at top
l0.grid(row=0,column=1) 
# data source list,
my_list=['aecde','adba','acbd','abcd','abded', 
       'bdbd','baba','bcbc','bdbd']

def my_upd(my_widget): # On selection of option 
    my_w = my_widget.widget
    index = int(my_w.curselection()[0]) # position of selection
    value = my_w.get(index) # selected value 
    e1_str.set(value) # set value for string variable of Entry 
    l1.delete(0,END)     # Delete all elements of Listbox
def my_down(my_widget): # down arrow is clicked 
    l1.focus()  # move focus to Listbox
    l1.selection_set(0) # select the first option 
    
e1_str=tk.StringVar()  # string variable   
e1=tk.Entry(my_w,textvariable=e1_str,font=font1) # entry    
e1.grid(row=1,column=1,padx=10,pady=0)
# listbox 
l1 = tk.Listbox(my_w,height=6,font=font1,relief='flat',
    bg='SystemButtonFace',highlightcolor= 'SystemButtonFace')
l1.grid(row=2,column=1) 

def get_data(*args): # populate the Listbox with matching options 
    search_str=e1.get() # user entered string 
    l1.delete(0,END)     # Delete all elements of Listbox
    for element in my_list:
        if(re.match(search_str,element,re.IGNORECASE)):
            l1.insert(tk.END,element)#add matching options to Listbox
#l1.bind('<<ListboxSelect>>', my_upd)
e1.bind('<Down>', my_down) # down arrow key is pressed
l1.bind('<Right>', my_upd) # right arrow key is pressed
l1.bind('<Return>', my_upd)# return key is pressed 
e1_str.trace('w',get_data) #    
#print(my_w['bg']) # reading background colour of window 
my_w.mainloop()  # Keep the window open

Tkinter Autocomplete using down up arrow to navigate options & selection by right or enter key

Selecting colors using AutoComplete

Here is a list of Tkinter supported colours. The name of these colours we will be using as source for the Autocomplete.
Autocomplete using colour names as source.
MySQL table or Google sheets as data source for Autocomplete.
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Subhendu Mohapatra

Author & Instructor at plus2net

I write and maintain practical tutorials on Python, PHP, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, jQuery, and web development at plus2net. The tutorials focus on clear explanations, working examples, and code that readers can test and adapt while learning.

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Autocomplete using Entry & Listbox

Regular expression and matching string

Using bind events

Selecting colors using AutoComplete

Subhendu Mohapatra