Tkinter OptionMenu — Add or Remove Menu Options Easily

Components in our GUI window

Our Tkinter GUI will have three Buttons and one OptionMenu.
To keep it simple we will not add more interlocks to the process like checking the existing options before adding.

Each button will execute a function associated with Click event of it. Each function perform the respective action. Here is a list of Buttons, the function name and action to perform.

Component ( Text )	Function	Action performed by the Function
b1 ( Remove All )	my_remove()	Removes all the options of the OptionMenu
b2 ( Add All Opt)	my_add()	Add all the options to the OptionMenu
b3 (Remove Selected)	my_remove_sel()	Removes selected Option

Create the window and add components

import tkinter as tk
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("350x200")  # Size of the window 
my_w.title("www.plus2net.com")  # Adding a title

my_list = ["PHP","MySQL","Python","HTML","JQuery"]
my_list.sort() # sort the list in alphabetical order
options = tk.StringVar(my_w)
options.set(my_list[0]) # default value

om1 =tk.OptionMenu(my_w, options, *my_list)
om1.grid(row=2,column=4) 

b1 = tk.Button(my_w,  text='Remove All', command=lambda: my_remove() )  
b1.grid(row=1,column=2)

b2 = tk.Button(my_w,  text='Add All Opt', command=lambda: my_add() )  
b2.grid(row=2,column=2)

b3 = tk.Button(my_w,  text='Remove Selectd', command=lambda: my_remove_sel() )  
b3.grid(row=3,column=2)

Each of the three Buttons we used here are associated to three different functions ( command=lambda: my_add()).

my_remove()

It deletes the default selection first and then it removes all the options.

my_add()

First it removes all the option by calling the function my_remove(). Then one for loop is used for the list to show all elements and those elements are added to the OptionMenu.

my_remove_sel()

First we found out the index of the selected item. This index is used to remove ( delete ) the option. Finally the default selection of the OptionMenu is shifted to first element.

def my_remove():
    options.set('') # remove default selection only, not the full list
    om1['menu'].delete(0,'end') # remove full list 
def my_add():
    my_remove() # remove all options 
    for opt in my_list: 
        om1['menu'].add_command(label=opt, command=tk._setit(options, opt))
    options.set(my_list[0]) # default value set 

def my_remove_sel():
    r_index=om1['menu'].index(options.get()) # index of selected option. 
    om1['menu'].delete(r_index)    # deleted the option
    options.set(om1['menu'].entrycget(0,"label")) # select the first one

Here is the full code.

import tkinter as tk
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("350x200")  # Size of the window 
my_w.title("www.plus2net.com")  # Adding a title

my_list = ["PHP","MySQL","Python","HTML","JQuery"]
my_list.sort() # sort the list in alphabetical order
options = tk.StringVar(my_w) # to hold the user selection of option
options.set(my_list[0]) # default value

om1 =tk.OptionMenu(my_w, options, *my_list)
om1.grid(row=2,column=5) 

b1 = tk.Button(my_w,  text='Remove All', command=lambda: my_remove() )  
b1.grid(row=1,column=2)

b2 = tk.Button(my_w,  text='Add All Opt', command=lambda: my_add() )  
b2.grid(row=2,column=2)

b3 = tk.Button(my_w,  text='Remove Selectd', command=lambda: my_remove_sel() )  
b3.grid(row=3,column=2)
#om1['menu'].insert_separator(2) # add separator after 2nd element
def my_remove(): # remove all options 
    options.set('') # remove default selection only, not the full list
    om1['menu'].delete(0,'end') # remove full list 
def my_add():
    my_remove() # remove all options 
    for opt in my_list: 
        om1['menu'].add_command(label=opt, command=tk._setit(options, opt))
    options.set(my_list[0]) # default value set 

def my_remove_sel(): # remove the user selected option 
    r_index=om1['menu'].index(options.get())
    om1['menu'].delete(r_index)
    options.set(om1['menu'].entrycget(0,"label")) # select the first one 
    
my_w.mainloop()

User can enter data in a text box and on click of a button the same data will be added as an option of an OptionMenu

Podcast on Tkinter the Python GUI Development

Adding user entered text as Option of an OptionMenu.
OptionMenu

Python Tkinter Dictionary Python- Tutorials

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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