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phoenix_title wx.TextEntry

Common base class for single line text entry fields.

This class is not a control itself, as it doesn’t derive from wx.Window. Instead it is used as a base class by other controls, notably wx.TextCtrl and wx.ComboBox and gathers the methods common to both of them.

New in version 2.9.0.


class_hierarchy Class Hierarchy

Inheritance diagram for class TextEntry:

method_summary Methods Summary

AppendText Appends the text to the end of the text control.
AutoComplete Call this function to enable auto-completion of the text typed in a single-line text control using the given choices.
AutoCompleteDirectories Call this function to enable auto-completion of the text using the file system directories.
AutoCompleteFileNames Call this function to enable auto-completion of the text typed in a single-line text control using all valid file system paths.
CanCopy Returns True if the selection can be copied to the clipboard.
CanCut Returns True if the selection can be cut to the clipboard.
CanPaste Returns True if the contents of the clipboard can be pasted into the text control.
CanRedo Returns True if there is a redo facility available and the last operation can be redone.
CanUndo Returns True if there is an undo facility available and the last operation can be undone.
ChangeValue Sets the new text control value.
Clear Clears the text in the control.
Copy Copies the selected text to the clipboard.
Cut Copies the selected text to the clipboard and removes it from the control.
GetHint Returns the current hint string.
GetInsertionPoint Returns the insertion point, or cursor, position.
GetLastPosition Returns the zero based index of the last position in the text control, which is equal to the number of characters in the control.
GetMargins Returns the margins used by the control.
GetRange Returns the string containing the text starting in the positions from and up to to in the control.
GetSelection Gets the current selection span.
GetStringSelection Gets the text currently selected in the control.
GetValue Gets the contents of the control.
IsEditable Returns True if the controls contents may be edited by user (note that it always can be changed by the program).
IsEmpty Returns True if the control is currently empty.
Paste Pastes text from the clipboard to the text item.
Redo If there is a redo facility and the last operation can be redone, redoes the last operation.
Remove Removes the text starting at the first given position up to (but not including) the character at the last position.
Replace Replaces the text starting at the first position up to (but not including) the character at the last position with the given text.
SelectAll Selects all text in the control.
SelectNone Deselects selected text in the control.
SetEditable Makes the text item editable or read-only, overriding the wx.TE_READONLY flag.
SetHint Sets a hint shown in an empty unfocused text control.
SetInsertionPoint Sets the insertion point at the given position.
SetInsertionPointEnd Sets the insertion point at the end of the text control.
SetMargins Attempts to set the control margins.
SetMaxLength This function sets the maximum number of characters the user can enter into the control.
SetSelection Selects the text starting at the first position up to (but not including) the character at the last position.
SetValue Sets the new text control value.
Undo If there is an undo facility and the last operation can be undone, undoes the last operation.
WriteText Writes the text into the text control at the current insertion position.

api Class API



class wx.TextEntry(object)

Common base class for single line text entry fields.


Methods



AppendText(self, text)

Appends the text to the end of the text control.

Parameters:text (string) – Text to write to the text control.

Note

After the text is appended, the insertion point will be at the end of the text control. If this behaviour is not desired, the programmer should use GetInsertionPoint and SetInsertionPoint .

See also

WriteText



AutoComplete(self, *args, **kw)

overload Overloaded Implementations:



AutoComplete (self, choices)

Call this function to enable auto-completion of the text typed in a single-line text control using the given choices.

Notice that currently this function is only implemented in wxGTK2, wxMSW and OSX/Cocoa (for wx.TextCtrl only, but not for wx.ComboBox) ports and does nothing under the other platforms.

Parameters:choices (list of strings) –
Return type:bool
Returns:True if the auto-completion was enabled or False if the operation failed, typically because auto-completion is not supported by the current platform.

New in version 2.9.0.



AutoComplete (self, completer)

Enable auto-completion using the provided completer object.

This method should be used instead of AutoComplete overload taking the array of possible completions if the total number of strings is too big as it allows to return the completions dynamically, depending on the text already entered by user and so is more efficient.

The specified completer object will be used to retrieve the list of possible completions for the already entered text and will be deleted by wx.TextEntry itself when it’s not needed any longer.

Notice that you need to include /textcompleter.h in order to define your class inheriting from wx.TextCompleter.

Currently this method is only implemented in wxMSW and OSX/Cocoa (for wx.TextCtrl only, but not for wx.ComboBox).

Parameters:completer (wx.TextCompleter) – The object to be used for generating completions if not None. If it is None, auto-completion is disabled. The wx.TextEntry object takes ownership of this pointer and will delete it in any case (i.e. even if this method returns False).
Return type:bool
Returns:True if the auto-completion was enabled or False if the operation failed, typically because auto-completion is not supported by the current platform.

New in version 2.9.2.





AutoCompleteDirectories(self)

Call this function to enable auto-completion of the text using the file system directories.

Unlike AutoCompleteFileNames which completes both file names and directories, this function only completes the directory names.

Notice that currently this function is only implemented in wxMSW port and does nothing under the other platforms.

Return type:bool
Returns:True if the auto-completion was enabled or False if the operation failed, typically because auto-completion is not supported by the current platform.

New in version 2.9.3.

See also

AutoComplete



AutoCompleteFileNames(self)

Call this function to enable auto-completion of the text typed in a single-line text control using all valid file system paths.

Notice that currently this function is only implemented in wxMSW port and does nothing under the other platforms.

Return type:bool
Returns:True if the auto-completion was enabled or False if the operation failed, typically because auto-completion is not supported by the current platform.

New in version 2.9.0.

See also

AutoComplete



CanCopy(self)

Returns True if the selection can be copied to the clipboard.

Return type:bool


CanCut(self)

Returns True if the selection can be cut to the clipboard.

Return type:bool


CanPaste(self)

Returns True if the contents of the clipboard can be pasted into the text control.

On some platforms (Motif, GTK) this is an approximation and returns True if the control is editable, False otherwise.

Return type:bool


CanRedo(self)

Returns True if there is a redo facility available and the last operation can be redone.

Return type:bool


CanUndo(self)

Returns True if there is an undo facility available and the last operation can be undone.

Return type:bool


ChangeValue(self, value)

Sets the new text control value.

It also marks the control as not-modified which means that IsModified() would return False immediately after the call to ChangeValue .

The insertion point is set to the start of the control (i.e. position 0) by this function.

This functions does not generate the wxEVT_TEXT event but otherwise is identical to SetValue .

See User Generated Events vs Programmatically Generated Events for more information.

Parameters:value (string) – The new value to set. It may contain newline characters if the text control is multi-line.

New in version 2.7.1.



Clear(self)

Clears the text in the control.

Note that this function will generate a wxEVT_TEXT event, i.e. its effect is identical to calling SetValue (“”).



Copy(self)

Copies the selected text to the clipboard.



Cut(self)

Copies the selected text to the clipboard and removes it from the control.



GetHint(self)

Returns the current hint string.

See SetHint for more information about hints.

Return type:string

New in version 2.9.0.



GetInsertionPoint(self)

Returns the insertion point, or cursor, position.

This is defined as the zero based index of the character position to the right of the insertion point. For example, if the insertion point is at the end of the single-line text control, it is equal to GetLastPosition .

Notice that insertion position is, in general, different from the index of the character the cursor position at in the string returned by GetValue . While this is always the case for the single line controls, multi-line controls can use two characters "\\r\\n" as line separator (this is notably the case under MSW) meaning that indices in the control and its string value are offset by 1 for every line.

Hence to correctly get the character at the current cursor position, taking into account that there can be none if the cursor is at the end of the string, you could do the following:

def GetCurrentChar(textCtrl):

    pos = textCtrl.GetInsertionPoint()

    if pos == textCtrl.GetLastPosition():
        return ''

    return textCtrl.GetValue()[pos]
Return type:long


GetLastPosition(self)

Returns the zero based index of the last position in the text control, which is equal to the number of characters in the control.

Return type:wx.TextPos


GetMargins(self)

Returns the margins used by the control.

The x field of the returned point is the horizontal margin and the y field is the vertical one.

Return type: wx.Point

New in version 2.9.1.

Note

If given margin cannot be accurately determined, its value will be set to -1. On some platforms you cannot obtain valid margin values until you have called SetMargins .

See also

SetMargins



GetRange(self, from_, to_)

Returns the string containing the text starting in the positions from and up to to in the control.

The positions must have been returned by another wx.TextCtrl method. Please note that the positions in a multiline wx.TextCtrl do not correspond to the indices in the string returned by GetValue because of the different new line representations ( CR or CR LF) and so this method should be used to obtain the correct results instead of extracting parts of the entire value. It may also be more efficient, especially if the control contains a lot of data.

Parameters:
  • from_ (long) –
  • to_ (long) –
Return type:

string



GetSelection(self)

Gets the current selection span.

If the returned values are equal, there was no selection. Please note that the indices returned may be used with the other wx.TextCtrl methods but don’t necessarily represent the correct indices into the string returned by GetValue for multiline controls under Windows (at least,) you should use GetStringSelection to get the selected text.

Return type:tuple


GetStringSelection(self)

Gets the text currently selected in the control.

If there is no selection, the returned string is empty.

Return type:string


GetValue(self)

Gets the contents of the control.

Notice that for a multiline text control, the lines will be separated by (Unix-style) \n characters, even under Windows where they are separated by a \r\n sequence in the native control.

Return type:string


IsEditable(self)

Returns True if the controls contents may be edited by user (note that it always can be changed by the program).

In other words, this functions returns True if the control hasn’t been put in read-only mode by a previous call to SetEditable .

Return type:bool


IsEmpty(self)

Returns True if the control is currently empty.

This is the same as GetValue .empty() but can be much more efficient for the multiline controls containing big amounts of text.

Return type:bool

New in version 2.7.1.



Paste(self)

Pastes text from the clipboard to the text item.



Redo(self)

If there is a redo facility and the last operation can be redone, redoes the last operation.

Does nothing if there is no redo facility.



Remove(self, from_, to_)

Removes the text starting at the first given position up to (but not including) the character at the last position.

This function puts the current insertion point position at to as a side effect.

Parameters:
  • from_ (long) –
  • to_ (long) –

The first position.

The last position.



Replace(self, from_, to_, value)

Replaces the text starting at the first position up to (but not including) the character at the last position with the given text.

This function puts the current insertion point position at to as a side effect.

Parameters:
  • from_ (long) –
  • to_ (long) –
  • value (string) – The value to replace the existing text with.

The first position.

The last position.



SelectAll(self)

Selects all text in the control.

See also

SetSelection



SelectNone(self)

Deselects selected text in the control.

New in version 2.9.5.



SetEditable(self, editable)

Makes the text item editable or read-only, overriding the wx.TE_READONLY flag.

Parameters:editable (bool) – If True, the control is editable. If False, the control is read-only.

See also

IsEditable



SetHint(self, hint)

Sets a hint shown in an empty unfocused text control.

The hints are usually used to indicate to the user what is supposed to be entered into the given entry field, e.g. a common use of them is to show an explanation of what can be entered in a wx.SearchCtrl.

The hint is shown (usually greyed out) for an empty control until it gets focus and is shown again if the control loses it and remains empty. It won’t be shown once the control has a non-empty value, although it will be shown again if the control contents is cleared. Because of this, it generally only makes sense to use hints with the controls which are initially empty.

Notice that hints are known as cue banners under MSW or placeholder strings under OS X.

Parameters:hint (string) –
Return type:bool

New in version 2.9.0.

Note

For the platforms without native hints support (and currently only the MSW port does have it and even there it is only used under Windows Vista and later only), the implementation has several known limitations. Notably, the hint display will not be properly updated if you change wx.TextEntry contents programmatically when the hint is displayed using methods other than SetValue or ChangeValue or others which use them internally (e.g. Clear ). In other words, currently you should avoid calling methods such as WriteText or Replace when using hints and the text control is empty.

Note

Hints can only be used for single line text controls, native multi-line text controls don’t support hints under any platform and hence wxWidgets doesn’t provide them neither.



SetInsertionPoint(self, pos)

Sets the insertion point at the given position.

Parameters:pos (long) – Position to set, in the range from 0 to GetLastPosition inclusive.


SetInsertionPointEnd(self)

Sets the insertion point at the end of the text control.

This is equivalent to calling wx.TextCtrl.SetInsertionPoint with wx.TextCtrl.GetLastPosition argument.



SetMargins(self, *args, **kw)

Attempts to set the control margins.

When margins are given as wx.Point, x indicates the left and y the top margin. Use -1 to indicate that an existing value should be used.

Returns:True if setting of all requested margins was successful.

New in version 2.9.1.

overload Overloaded Implementations:



SetMargins (self, pt)

Parameters:pt (wx.Point) –
Return type:bool



SetMargins (self, left, top=-1)

Parameters:
  • left (int) –
  • top (int) –
Return type:

bool





SetMaxLength(self, len)

This function sets the maximum number of characters the user can enter into the control.

In other words, it allows to limit the text value length to len not counting the terminating NUL character.

If len is 0, the previously set max length limit, if any, is discarded and the user may enter as much text as the underlying native text control widget supports (typically at least 32Kb). If the user tries to enter more characters into the text control when it already is filled up to the maximal length, a wxEVT_TEXT_MAXLEN event is sent to notify the program about it (giving it the possibility to show an explanatory message, for example) and the extra input is discarded.

Note that in wxGTK this function may only be used with single line text controls.

Parameters:len (long) –


SetSelection(self, from_, to_)

Selects the text starting at the first position up to (but not including) the character at the last position.

If both parameters are equal to -1 all text in the control is selected.

Notice that the insertion point will be moved to from by this function.

Parameters:
  • from_ (long) –
  • to_ (long) –

The first position.

The last position.

See also

SelectAll



SetValue(self, value)

Sets the new text control value.

It also marks the control as not-modified which means that IsModified() would return False immediately after the call to SetValue .

The insertion point is set to the start of the control (i.e. position 0) by this function.

Note that, unlike most other functions changing the controls values, this function generates a wxEVT_TEXT event. To avoid this you can use ChangeValue instead.

Parameters:value (string) – The new value to set. It may contain newline characters if the text control is multi-line.


Undo(self)

If there is an undo facility and the last operation can be undone, undoes the last operation.

Does nothing if there is no undo facility.



WriteText(self, text)

Writes the text into the text control at the current insertion position.

Parameters:text (string) – Text to write to the text control.

Note

Newlines in the text string are the only control characters allowed, and they will cause appropriate line breaks. See operator<<() and AppendText for more convenient ways of writing to the window. After the write operation, the insertion point will be at the end of the inserted text, so subsequent write operations will be appended. To append text after the user may have interacted with the control, call wx.TextCtrl.SetInsertionPointEnd before writing.


Properties



Hint

See GetHint and SetHint



InsertionPoint

See GetInsertionPoint and SetInsertionPoint



LastPosition

See GetLastPosition



Margins

See GetMargins and SetMargins



StringSelection

See GetStringSelection



Value

See GetValue and SetValue