Python Tkinter – ListBox Widget

Tkinter is a GUI toolkit used in python to make user-friendly GUIs.Tkinter is the most commonly used and the most basic GUI framework available in python. Tkinter uses an object-oriented approach to make GUIs. 

Note: For more information, refer to Python GUI – tkinter

ListBox widget

The ListBox widget is used to display different types of items. These items must be of the same type of font and having the same font color. The items must also be of Text type. The user can select one or more items from the given list according to the requirement.

Syntax:

listbox = Listbox(root, bg, fg, bd, height, width, font, ..) 

Optional parameters

• root – root window.
• bg – background colour
• fg – foreground colour
• bd – border
• height – height of the widget.
• width – width of the widget.
• font – Font type of the text.
• highlightcolor – The colour of the list items when focused.
• yscrollcommand – for scrolling vertically.
• xscrollcommand – for scrolling horizontally.
• cursor – The cursor on the widget which can be an arrow, a dot etc.

Common methods

• yview – allows the widget to be vertically scrollable.
• xview – allows the widget to be horizontally scrollable.
• get() – to get the list items in a given range.
• activate(index) – to select the lines with a specified index.
• size() – return the number of lines present.
• delete(start, last) – delete lines in the specified range.
• nearest(y) – returns the index of the nearest line.
• curseselection() – returns a tuple for all the line numbers that are being selected.

Example 1:

Python3

from tkinter import *

# create a root window.
top = Tk()

# create listbox object
listbox = Listbox(top, height = 10,
                  width = 15,
                  bg = "grey",
                  activestyle = 'dotbox',
                  font = "Helvetica",
                  fg = "yellow")

# Define the size of the window.
top.geometry("300x250")

# Define a label for the list.
label = Label(top, text = " FOOD ITEMS")

# insert elements by their
# index and names.
listbox.insert(1, "Nachos")
listbox.insert(2, "Sandwich")
listbox.insert(3, "Burger")
listbox.insert(4, "Pizza")
listbox.insert(5, "Burrito")

# pack the widgets
label.pack()
listbox.pack()


# Display until User
# exits themselves.
top.mainloop()

Output:

Example 2: Let’s Delete the elements from the above created listbox 

Python3

# Delete Items from the list
#  by specifying the index.
listbox.delete(2)

Output: