In this part of my Learn to Program series I’ll start a multi-part tutorial on developing GUI interfaces with TkInter and Python. We’ll look at root, Ttk, Button, Entry, Label, Frame, Checkbutton, TkInter Event Handling, mainLoop(), StringVar, the Pack Geometry Manager, the Grid Geometry Manager and more.

If you missed previous videos they start here. All of the code and a transcript follow the video below.

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Code & Transcript

# We are going to learn how to create Graphical User
# Interfaces (GUIs) with Tk

# Tk is a cross platform GUI toolkit that provides a
# ton of Widgets (Buttons, Scrollbars, etc.) that are
# used to build GUIs

# TkInter (tee-kay-inter) is included since Python 3.1 on Macs,
# Windows and Linux

# TkInter is a Python interface for Tk
from tkinter import *
from tkinter import ttk

# Test to see if TkInter is working
# tkinter._test()

# ---------- HELLO WORLD  ----------

# root is the main window that surrounds your interface
# This creates a Tk object
root = Tk()

# Give your app a title
root.title("First GUI")

# Put a button in the window
# Components like button are called Widgets
ttk.Button(root, text="Hello TkInter").grid()

# This keeps the root window visible and your program
# running
root.mainloop()


# ---------- MULTIPLE COMPONENTS  ----------
# Some of the different Widgets : Button, Label,
# Canvas, Menu, Text, Scale, OptionMenu, Frame,
# CheckButton, LabelFrame, MenuButton, PanedWindow,
# Entry, ListBox, Message, RadioButton, ScrollBar,
# Bitmap, SpinBox, Image

root = Tk()

# Frame widgets surround other widgets
frame = Frame(root)

# We'll use a TkInter variable for our label text
# so we can change it with set
labelText = StringVar()

# Create a label and button object
# You can set attributes on creation or by calling
# methods

label = Label(frame, textvariable=labelText)
button = Button(frame, text="Click Me")

# Change the label text
labelText.set("I am a label")

# Pack positions the widgets in the window
# It is a simple geometry manager
label.pack()
button.pack()
frame.pack()

root.mainloop()



# ---------- PACK GEOMETRY MANAGER  ----------
# Pack positions widgets by allowing them to define
# their position (Top, Right, Bottom, Left) and
# their fill direction (X, Y, BOTH, NONE) inside
# of a box

root = Tk()

frame = Frame(root)

# Define where the widgets should be placed and
# how they should be stretched to fill the space
Label(frame, text="A Bunch of Buttons").pack()
Button(frame, text="B1").pack(side=LEFT, fill=Y)
Button(frame, text="B2").pack(side=TOP, fill=X)
Button(frame, text="B3").pack(side=RIGHT, fill=X)
Button(frame, text="B4").pack(side=LEFT, fill=X)

frame.pack()

root.mainloop()


# ---------- GRID GEOMETRY MANAGER  ----------
# The Grid manager is the most useful using a series
# of rows and columns for laying out widgets

# Each cell can only hold 1 widget, but a widget
# can cover multiple cells.

root = Tk()

# rows start at 0, 1, ...
# columns start at 0, 1, ...
# sticky defines how the widget expands (N, NE, E, SE,
# S, SW, W, NW)
# padx and pady provide padding around the widget above
# and below it
Label(root, text="First Name").grid(row=0, sticky=W, padx=4)
Entry(root).grid(row=0, column=1, sticky=E, pady=4)

Label(root, text="Last Name").grid(row=1, sticky=W, padx=4)
Entry(root).grid(row=1, column=1, sticky=E, pady=4)

Button(root, text="Submit").grid(row=3)

root.mainloop()


# ---------- GRID EXAMPLE 2  ----------

root = Tk()

Label(root, text="Description").grid(row=0, column=0, sticky=W)
Entry(root, width=50).grid(row=0, column=1)
Button(root, text="Submit").grid(row=0, column=8)

Label(root, text="Quality").grid(row=1, column=0, sticky=W)
Radiobutton(root, text="New", value=1).grid(row=2, column=0, sticky=W)
Radiobutton(root, text="Good", value=2).grid(row=3, column=0, sticky=W)
Radiobutton(root, text="Poor", value=3).grid(row=4, column=0, sticky=W)
Radiobutton(root, text="Damaged", value=4).grid(row=5, column=0, sticky=W)

Label(root, text="Benefits").grid(row=1, column=1, sticky=W)
Checkbutton(root, text="Free Shipping").grid(row=2, column=1, sticky=W)
Checkbutton(root, text="Bonus Gift").grid(row=3, column=1, sticky=W)

root.mainloop()

# ---------- TKINTER EVENTS  ----------

def get_sum(event):

    # Get the value stored in the entries
    num1 = int(num1Entry.get())
    num2 = int(num2Entry.get())
    sum = num1 + num2
    
    # Delete the value in the entry
    sumEntry.delete(0, "end")

    # Insert the sum into the entry
    sumEntry.insert(0, sum)

root = Tk()

num1Entry = Entry(root)
num1Entry.pack(side=LEFT)

Label(root, text="+").pack(side=LEFT)

num2Entry = Entry(root)
num2Entry.pack(side=LEFT)

equalButton = Button(root, text="=")

# When the left mouse button is clicked call the
# function get_sum
equalButton.bind("<Button-1>", get_sum)

equalButton.pack(side=LEFT)

sumEntry = Entry(root)
sumEntry.pack(side=LEFT)

root.mainloop()