OptionMenu to select one option from drop down list in Python tkinter GUI

Basics of Python Tkinter
OptionMenu of GUI using Tkinter

OptionMenu is similar to dropdown list box where user can expand and select one of the several available options.

Video Tutorial on Tkinter OptionMenu . Part - 1

Creating one OptionMenu

Using basics of Tkinter we will create one OptionMenu. (above Image )

import tkinter as tk
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("300x200")  # Size of the window 
my_w.title("www.plus2net.com")  # Adding a title

options = tk.StringVar(my_w)
options.set("One") # default value

l3 = tk.Label(my_w,  text='Select One', width=15 )  
l3.grid(row=5,column=1) 

om1 =tk.OptionMenu(my_w, options, "HTML","PHP", "MySQL", "Python")
om1.grid(row=5,column=2) 
my_w.mainloop()  # Keep the window open

We can use elements of an list as options of a OptionMenu. Here we used *my_list to unpack the list return the elements as options. You can try the command print(*my_list) to display the elements of any list.

my_list = ["PHP","MySQL","Python","HTML"]
options = tk.StringVar(my_w)
options.set(my_list[1]) # default value

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

How to read selected option of OptionMenu

options.get() , here options is the textvariable of OptionMenu.

Video Tutorial on Tkinter OptionMenu Events Part - 2

Reading selected option through button click

We will use one Button and on Click of the Button we will display the selected option of an OptionMenu inside another Label.

To the above code we will add one more Button and one Label to display the selected value of the OptionMenu. We used the function my_show() to execute once the Button is clicked.

b1 = tk.Button(my_w,  text='Show Value',command=lambda: my_show())

Inside the function my_show() we will read the value of Tkinter StringVar() options ( which is the textvariable of OptionMenu opt1 ) and display the same through our Label l2 textvariable str_out.

def my_show():
    str_out.set(options.get())

The full code is here.

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

options = tk.StringVar(my_w)
options.set("One") # default value

l1 = tk.Label(my_w,  text='Select One', width=10 )  
l1.grid(row=2,column=1) 

om1 =tk.OptionMenu(my_w, options, "HTML","PHP", "MySQL", "Python")
om1.grid(row=2,column=2) 

b1 = tk.Button(my_w,  text='Show Value', command=lambda: my_show() )  
b1.grid(row=2,column=3) 

str_out=tk.StringVar(my_w)
str_out.set("Output")

l2 = tk.Label(my_w,  textvariable=str_out, width=10 )  
l2.grid(row=2,column=4) 

def my_show():
    str_out.set(options.get())

my_w.mainloop()

On Select or On Change of option of OptionMenu

Reading selected option on change or on selection

Without using any Button click we can read the selected value of the OptionMenu. Whenever any selection is changed or one option is selected by the user we will read the value and display the same through a Label.

trace method is used to attach 'observer' callbacks to the variable

More on StringVar & trace method
Here the variable options is connected to the OptionMenu, this value whenever changes ( when user select or change the option ) the trace method will trigger the callback function my_show().

Inside this function my_show() we will update the variable str_out ( which is connected to output Label l2) by reading the new assigned value of options i.e options.get().

def my_show(*args):
    str_out.set(options.get())

options.trace('w',my_show)

Full code is here

import tkinter as tk
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("300x120")  # Size of the window 
my_w.title("www.plus2net.com")  # Adding a title

l3 = tk.Label(my_w,  text='Select One', width=15 )  
l3.grid(row=2,column=1)

my_list = ["PHP","MySQL","Python","HTML"]
options = tk.StringVar(my_w)
options.set(my_list[1]) # default value

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

str_out=tk.StringVar(my_w)
str_out.set("Output")

l2 = tk.Label(my_w,  textvariable=str_out, width=10 )  
l2.grid(row=2,column=4) 

def my_show(*args):
    str_out.set(options.get())

options.trace('w',my_show)
my_w.mainloop()  # Keep the window open

Using dictionary for OptionMenu

We have seen HTML drop down list box were the option attribute is collected but different value is shown to the visitor. So far we have used one single element list only to populate the OptionMenu here. Now we will use key value pairs or dictionary as options for the OptionMenu. Here is one sample dictionary from Category table where we have cat_id and category value as dictionary key , value pair.

import tkinter as tk
my_w = tk.Tk()
my_w.geometry("250x200")  # Size of the window 
my_w.title("www.plus2net.com")  # Adding a title
# create the dictionary
my_dict1={1: 'Fruits', 2: 'Colors', 3: 'Games', 4: 'Vehicles'}

options = tk.StringVar(my_w) # variable 
options.set(my_dict1[1]) # default value

om1 =tk.OptionMenu(my_w, options, *my_dict1.values())
om1.grid(row=2,column=5)

def my_show(*args):  # on select function 
    for i,j in my_dict1.items():
        if j==options.get():
            print(i)            

options.trace('w',my_show)
my_w.mainloop()

Here Dictionary category ( value ) is displayed but on selection ID ( key ) is collected and displayed.
Add or Remove options from OptionMenu Project 1

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

Adding user entered text as Option of an OptionMenu.

Collect the unique class from student table of MySQL database by using Query. From the data create one list and use the same as option values of an OptionMenu

Create one OptionMenu with option values taken from MySQL database table Create one OptionMenu with option values taken from SQLite database table

Python Tkinter Dictionary Python- Tutorials

Python tkinter OptionMenu

Video Tutorial on Tkinter OptionMenu . Part - 1

Creating one OptionMenu

How to read selected option of OptionMenu

Video Tutorial on Tkinter OptionMenu Events Part - 2

On Select or On Change of option of OptionMenu

Using dictionary for OptionMenu