Develop Reference

How to handle X-ing out of a pop up in Tkinter [duplicate]

How do I handle the window close event (user clicking the 'X' button) in a Python Tkinter program?

Tkinter supports a mechanism called protocol handlers. Here, the term protocol refers to the interaction between the application and the window manager. The most commonly used protocol is called WM_DELETE_WINDOW, and is used to define what happens when the user explicitly closes a window using the window manager.
You can use the protocol method to install a handler for this protocol (the widget must be a Tk or Toplevel widget):
Here you have a concrete example:
import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import messagebox
root = tk.Tk()
def on_closing():
if messagebox.askokcancel("Quit", "Do you want to quit?"):
root.destroy()
root.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", on_closing)
root.mainloop()

Matt has shown one classic modification of the close button.
The other is to have the close button minimize the window.
You can reproduced this behavior by having the iconify method
be the protocol method's second argument.
Here's a working example, tested on Windows 7 & 10:
# Python 3
import tkinter
import tkinter.scrolledtext as scrolledtext
root = tkinter.Tk()
# make the top right close button minimize (iconify) the main window
root.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", root.iconify)
# make Esc exit the program
root.bind('<Escape>', lambda e: root.destroy())
# create a menu bar with an Exit command
menubar = tkinter.Menu(root)
filemenu = tkinter.Menu(menubar, tearoff=0)
filemenu.add_command(label="Exit", command=root.destroy)
menubar.add_cascade(label="File", menu=filemenu)
root.config(menu=menubar)
# create a Text widget with a Scrollbar attached
txt = scrolledtext.ScrolledText(root, undo=True)
txt['font'] = ('consolas', '12')
txt.pack(expand=True, fill='both')
root.mainloop()
In this example we give the user two new exit options:
the classic File → Exit, and also the Esc button.

Depending on the Tkinter activity, and especially when using Tkinter.after, stopping this activity with destroy() -- even by using protocol(), a button, etc. -- will disturb this activity ("while executing" error) rather than just terminate it. The best solution in almost every case is to use a flag. Here is a simple, silly example of how to use it (although I am certain that most of you don't need it! :)
from Tkinter import *
def close_window():
global running
running = False # turn off while loop
print( "Window closed")
root = Tk()
root.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", close_window)
cv = Canvas(root, width=200, height=200)
cv.pack()
running = True;
# This is an endless loop stopped only by setting 'running' to 'False'
while running:
for i in range(200):
if not running:
break
cv.create_oval(i, i, i+1, i+1)
root.update()
This terminates graphics activity nicely. You only need to check running at the right place(s).

If you want to change what the x button does or make it so that you cannot close it at all try this.
yourwindow.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", whatever)
then defy what "whatever" means
def whatever():
# Replace this with your own event for example:
print("oi don't press that button")
You can also make it so that when you close that window you can call it back like this
yourwindow.withdraw()
This hides the window but does not close it
yourwindow.deiconify()
This makes the window visible again

I'd like to thank the answer by Apostolos for bringing this to my attention. Here's a much more detailed example for Python 3 in the year 2019, with a clearer description and example code.
Beware of the fact that destroy() (or not having a custom window closing handler at all) will destroy the window and all of its running callbacks instantly when the user closes it.
This can be bad for you, depending on your current Tkinter activity, and especially when using tkinter.after (periodic callbacks). You might be using a callback which processes some data and writes to disk... in that case, you obviously want the data writing to finish without being abruptly killed.
The best solution for that is to use a flag. So when the user requests window closing, you mark that as a flag, and then react to it.
(Note: I normally design GUIs as nicely encapsulated classes and separate worker threads, and I definitely don't use "global" (I use class instance variables instead), but this is meant to be a simple, stripped-down example to demonstrate how Tk abruptly kills your periodic callbacks when the user closes the window...)
from tkinter import *
import time
# Try setting this to False and look at the printed numbers (1 to 10)
# during the work-loop, if you close the window while the periodic_call
# worker is busy working (printing). It will abruptly end the numbers,
# and kill the periodic callback! That's why you should design most
# applications with a safe closing callback as described in this demo.
safe_closing = True
# ---------
busy_processing = False
close_requested = False
def close_window():
global close_requested
close_requested = True
print("User requested close at:", time.time(), "Was busy processing:", busy_processing)
root = Tk()
if safe_closing:
root.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", close_window)
lbl = Label(root)
lbl.pack()
def periodic_call():
global busy_processing
if not close_requested:
busy_processing = True
for i in range(10):
print((i+1), "of 10")
time.sleep(0.2)
lbl["text"] = str(time.time()) # Will error if force-closed.
root.update() # Force redrawing since we change label multiple times in a row.
busy_processing = False
root.after(500, periodic_call)
else:
print("Destroying GUI at:", time.time())
try: # "destroy()" can throw, so you should wrap it like this.
root.destroy()
except:
# NOTE: In most code, you'll wanna force a close here via
# "exit" if the window failed to destroy. Just ensure that
# you have no code after your `mainloop()` call (at the
# bottom of this file), since the exit call will cause the
# process to terminate immediately without running any more
# code. Of course, you should NEVER have code after your
# `mainloop()` call in well-designed code anyway...
# exit(0)
pass
root.after_idle(periodic_call)
root.mainloop()
This code will show you that the WM_DELETE_WINDOW handler runs even while our custom periodic_call() is busy in the middle of work/loops!
We use some pretty exaggerated .after() values: 500 milliseconds. This is just meant to make it very easy for you to see the difference between closing while the periodic call is busy, or not... If you close while the numbers are updating, you will see that the WM_DELETE_WINDOW happened while your periodic call "was busy processing: True". If you close while the numbers are paused (meaning that the periodic callback isn't processing at that moment), you see that the close happened while it's "not busy".
In real-world usage, your .after() would use something like 30-100 milliseconds, to have a responsive GUI. This is just a demonstration to help you understand how to protect yourself against Tk's default "instantly interrupt all work when closing" behavior.
In summary: Make the WM_DELETE_WINDOW handler set a flag, and then check that flag periodically and manually .destroy() the window when it's safe (when your app is done with all work).
PS: You can also use WM_DELETE_WINDOW to ask the user if they REALLY want to close the window; and if they answer no, you don't set the flag. It's very simple. You just show a messagebox in your WM_DELETE_WINDOW and set the flag based on the user's answer.

You should use destroy() to close a tkinter window.
from Tkinter import *
root = Tk()
Button(root, text="Quit", command=root.destroy).pack()
root.mainloop()
Explanation:
root.quit()
The above line just Bypasses the root.mainloop() i.e root.mainloop() will still be running in background if quit() command is executed.
root.destroy()
While destroy() command vanish out root.mainloop() i.e root.mainloop() stops.
So as you just want to quit the program so you should use root.destroy() as it will it stop the mainloop()`.
But if you want to run some infinite loop and you don't want to destroy your Tk window and want to execute some code after root.mainloop() line then you should use root.quit().
Ex:
from Tkinter import *
def quit():
global root
root.quit()
root = Tk()
while True:
Button(root, text="Quit", command=quit).pack()
root.mainloop()
#do something

The easiest code is:
from tkinter import *
window = Tk()
For hiding the window : window.withdraw()
For appearing the window : window.deiconify()
For exiting from the window : exit()
For exiting from the window(If you've made a .exe file) :
from tkinter import *
import sys
window = Tk()
sys.exit()
And of course you have to place a button and use the codes above in a function so you can type the function's name in the command part of the button

Try The Simple Version:
import tkinter
window = Tk()
closebutton = Button(window, text='X', command=window.destroy)
closebutton.pack()
window.mainloop()
Or If You Want To Add More Commands:
import tkinter
window = Tk()
def close():
window.destroy()
#More Functions
closebutton = Button(window, text='X', command=close)
closebutton.pack()
window.mainloop()

you can use:
root = Tk()
def func():
print('not clossed')
root.protocol('wm_delete_window', func)
root.mainloop()

def on_closing():
if messagebox.askokcancel("Quit", "would you like to quit"):
window.destroy()
window.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", on_closing)
you can handle a window close event like this, if you wanna do something else just change the things that happen in the on_closing() function.

i say a lot simpler way would be using the break command, like
import tkinter as tk
win=tk.Tk
def exit():
break
btn= tk.Button(win, text="press to exit", command=exit)
win.mainloop()
OR use sys.exit()
import tkinter as tk
import sys
win=tk.Tk
def exit():
sys.exit
btn= tk.Button(win, text="press to exit", command=exit)
win.mainloop()

Tkinter TopLevel not showing when it's supposed to

I have a very simple python code: a tkitner button that process some images in the background. I wanted to open a tkinter toplevel to show the user that it was doing something, but for my surprise is not working as I thought it would. The command on the tk.Button is the next method:
def processing(self):
"""Starts the images processing"""
# Open a Tk.Toplevel
aux_topLevel = Splash(self.window) # a simple Tk.Toplevel class, that works perfectly
self._process_images() # starts processing the images
# I wanted to kill here the topLevel created before
aux_topLevel.destroy()
My surprise: the window is displayed once the processing images is done (tried it out adding prints and time.sleep), however, i couldn't display the TopLevel when I wanted to.
Is there anything am I doing wrong? Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

Consider the following example and try to run it.
What you'd think should happen is that the new Toplevel window should open, some event happens for a period of time and then the window is destroyed.
What actually happens is the window is opened, but never displayed, the task occurs and then the window is destroyed.
from tkinter import *
import time
def processing():
new = Toplevel(root)
new.geometry("200x150")
lbl = Label(new,text="--")
lbl.grid()
for i in range(50):
time.sleep(0.1)
#Un-comment the line below to fix
#root.update()
print(i)
lbl['text'] = "{}".format(i)
new.destroy()
root = Tk()
root.geometry('200x100')
btnGo = Button(root,text="Go",command=processing)
btnGo.grid()
root.mainloop()
If you un-comment out the root.update() line and re-run the code, the window will be displayed.
There are better ways to deal with tasks that takes a while to process, such as threading.

How to duplicate Tkinter pop-up

So the code initially begins with a pop up asking you if you are ready, then once you select yes, a pop-up appears and if you try and close it, it will duplicate itself. Right now, it cannot duplicate itself.
Sorry if code is bad and riddled with mistakes (I'm just a beginner.) Thanks for helping.
from tkinter import *
from tkinter import messagebox
def a():
window2 = Tk()
offset = 300 + 1*10
window2.geometry('250x50+'+str(offset)+'+'+str(offset))
window2.title('')
window2.resizable(False, False)
la = Label(window2,text = 'ccmeockeoowpeokv.').pack()
button = Button(window2, text = 'OK', command = a()).pack()
def begining():
window = Tk()
window.eval('tk::PlaceWindow %s center' %window.winfo_toplevel())
window.withdraw()
if messagebox.askyesno("heh", "Ready?.") == True:
a()
window.deiconify()
window.destroy()
window.quit()
begining()

Do NOT ever insert Tk() if there are the absolute root of application, because it's just gonna make a new App, and NOT a new Window
The only method is using Toplevel()
Here, i explain you a bit
What is Toplevel()?
The Toplevel() widget is used to create and display the toplevel windows which are directly managed by the window manager
What is the function of Toplevel()?
The function of Toplevel() is to create a new window, without using Tk(). The Tk() and Toplevel() is almost same, but Toplevel() is to create a new window, without even create new application, if you watch some tutorial, the Tk() function is used to be creating a new application
What is the difference between Toplevel() and Tk()?
Tk() is the absolute root of the application, it is the first widget that needs to be instantiated and the GUI will shut down when it is destroyed. Toplevel() is a window in the application, closing the window will destroy all children widgets placed on that window but will not shut down the program
I suggest you to read more of the docs, or watch some tkinter tutorials on Youtube
Happy coding!

label.configure works sometimes why?

Part of my code is as follows:
def get_songs():
label6.configure(text='Wait')
os.system('/home/norman/my-startups/grabsongs')
label6.configure(text='Done')
The label is not updated at the first .configure() but is at the second one.
Except if I cause a deliberate error immediately after the first one at which point it is updated and then the program terminates.
The system call takes about 2 minutes to complete so it isn't as if there isn't time to display the first one.
I am using Python 2.7.6
Does anyone know why please?

I'm going to guess you're using Tkinter. If so, as #albert just suggested, you'll want to call label.update_idletasks() or label.update() to tell Tkinter to refresh the display.
As a very crude example to reproduce your problem, let's make a program that will:
Wait 1 second
Do something (sleep for 2 seconds) and update the text to "wait"
Display "done" afterwards
For example:
import Tkinter as tk
import time
root = tk.Tk()
label = tk.Label(root, text='Not waiting yet')
label.pack()
def do_stuff():
label.configure(text='Wait')
time.sleep(2)
label.configure(text='Done')
label.after(1000, do_stuff)
tk.mainloop()
Notice that "Wait" will never be displayed.
To fix that, let's call update_idletasks() after initially setting the text:
import Tkinter as tk
import time
root = tk.Tk()
label = tk.Label(root, text='Not waiting yet')
label.pack()
def do_stuff():
label.configure(text='Wait')
label.update_idletasks()
time.sleep(2)
label.configure(text='Done')
label.after(1000, do_stuff)
tk.mainloop()
As far as why this happens, it actually is because Tkinter doesn't have time to update the label.
Calling configure doesn't automatically force a refresh of the display, it just queues one the next time things are idle. Because you immediately call something that will halt execution of the mainloop (calling an executable and forcing python to halt until it finishes), Tkinter never gets a chance to process the changes to the label.
Notice that while the gui displays "Wait" (while your process/sleep is running) it won't respond to resizing, etc. Python has halted execution until the other process finishes running.
To get around this, consider using subprocess.Popen (or something similar) instead of os.system. You'll then need to perodically poll the returned pipe to see if the subprocess has finished.
As an example (I'm also moving this into a class to keep the scoping from getting excessively confusing):
import Tkinter as tk
import subprocess
class Application(object):
def __init__(self, parent):
self.parent = parent
self.label = tk.Label(parent, text='Not waiting yet')
self.label.pack()
self.parent.after(1000, self.do_stuff)
def do_stuff(self):
self.label.configure(text='Wait')
self._pipe = subprocess.Popen(['/bin/sleep', '2'])
self.poll()
def poll(self):
if self._pipe.poll() is None:
self.label.after(100, self.poll)
else:
self.label.configure(text='Done')
root = tk.Tk()
app = Application(root)
tk.mainloop()
The key difference here is that we can resize/move/interact with the window while we're waiting for the external process to finish. Also note that we never needed to call update_idletasks/update, as Tkinter now does have idle time to update the display.

Find Out When A Tkinter Window Quits [duplicate]

How do I handle the window close event (user clicking the 'X' button) in a Python Tkinter program?

Tkinter supports a mechanism called protocol handlers. Here, the term protocol refers to the interaction between the application and the window manager. The most commonly used protocol is called WM_DELETE_WINDOW, and is used to define what happens when the user explicitly closes a window using the window manager.
You can use the protocol method to install a handler for this protocol (the widget must be a Tk or Toplevel widget):
Here you have a concrete example:
import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import messagebox
root = tk.Tk()
def on_closing():
if messagebox.askokcancel("Quit", "Do you want to quit?"):
root.destroy()
root.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", on_closing)
root.mainloop()

Matt has shown one classic modification of the close button.
The other is to have the close button minimize the window.
You can reproduced this behavior by having the iconify method
be the protocol method's second argument.
Here's a working example, tested on Windows 7 & 10:
# Python 3
import tkinter
import tkinter.scrolledtext as scrolledtext
root = tkinter.Tk()
# make the top right close button minimize (iconify) the main window
root.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", root.iconify)
# make Esc exit the program
root.bind('<Escape>', lambda e: root.destroy())
# create a menu bar with an Exit command
menubar = tkinter.Menu(root)
filemenu = tkinter.Menu(menubar, tearoff=0)
filemenu.add_command(label="Exit", command=root.destroy)
menubar.add_cascade(label="File", menu=filemenu)
root.config(menu=menubar)
# create a Text widget with a Scrollbar attached
txt = scrolledtext.ScrolledText(root, undo=True)
txt['font'] = ('consolas', '12')
txt.pack(expand=True, fill='both')
root.mainloop()
In this example we give the user two new exit options:
the classic File → Exit, and also the Esc button.

Depending on the Tkinter activity, and especially when using Tkinter.after, stopping this activity with destroy() -- even by using protocol(), a button, etc. -- will disturb this activity ("while executing" error) rather than just terminate it. The best solution in almost every case is to use a flag. Here is a simple, silly example of how to use it (although I am certain that most of you don't need it! :)
from Tkinter import *
def close_window():
global running
running = False # turn off while loop
print( "Window closed")
root = Tk()
root.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", close_window)
cv = Canvas(root, width=200, height=200)
cv.pack()
running = True;
# This is an endless loop stopped only by setting 'running' to 'False'
while running:
for i in range(200):
if not running:
break
cv.create_oval(i, i, i+1, i+1)
root.update()
This terminates graphics activity nicely. You only need to check running at the right place(s).

If you want to change what the x button does or make it so that you cannot close it at all try this.
yourwindow.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", whatever)
then defy what "whatever" means
def whatever():
# Replace this with your own event for example:
print("oi don't press that button")
You can also make it so that when you close that window you can call it back like this
yourwindow.withdraw()
This hides the window but does not close it
yourwindow.deiconify()
This makes the window visible again

I'd like to thank the answer by Apostolos for bringing this to my attention. Here's a much more detailed example for Python 3 in the year 2019, with a clearer description and example code.
Beware of the fact that destroy() (or not having a custom window closing handler at all) will destroy the window and all of its running callbacks instantly when the user closes it.
This can be bad for you, depending on your current Tkinter activity, and especially when using tkinter.after (periodic callbacks). You might be using a callback which processes some data and writes to disk... in that case, you obviously want the data writing to finish without being abruptly killed.
The best solution for that is to use a flag. So when the user requests window closing, you mark that as a flag, and then react to it.
(Note: I normally design GUIs as nicely encapsulated classes and separate worker threads, and I definitely don't use "global" (I use class instance variables instead), but this is meant to be a simple, stripped-down example to demonstrate how Tk abruptly kills your periodic callbacks when the user closes the window...)
from tkinter import *
import time
# Try setting this to False and look at the printed numbers (1 to 10)
# during the work-loop, if you close the window while the periodic_call
# worker is busy working (printing). It will abruptly end the numbers,
# and kill the periodic callback! That's why you should design most
# applications with a safe closing callback as described in this demo.
safe_closing = True
# ---------
busy_processing = False
close_requested = False
def close_window():
global close_requested
close_requested = True
print("User requested close at:", time.time(), "Was busy processing:", busy_processing)
root = Tk()
if safe_closing:
root.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", close_window)
lbl = Label(root)
lbl.pack()
def periodic_call():
global busy_processing
if not close_requested:
busy_processing = True
for i in range(10):
print((i+1), "of 10")
time.sleep(0.2)
lbl["text"] = str(time.time()) # Will error if force-closed.
root.update() # Force redrawing since we change label multiple times in a row.
busy_processing = False
root.after(500, periodic_call)
else:
print("Destroying GUI at:", time.time())
try: # "destroy()" can throw, so you should wrap it like this.
root.destroy()
except:
# NOTE: In most code, you'll wanna force a close here via
# "exit" if the window failed to destroy. Just ensure that
# you have no code after your `mainloop()` call (at the
# bottom of this file), since the exit call will cause the
# process to terminate immediately without running any more
# code. Of course, you should NEVER have code after your
# `mainloop()` call in well-designed code anyway...
# exit(0)
pass
root.after_idle(periodic_call)
root.mainloop()
This code will show you that the WM_DELETE_WINDOW handler runs even while our custom periodic_call() is busy in the middle of work/loops!
We use some pretty exaggerated .after() values: 500 milliseconds. This is just meant to make it very easy for you to see the difference between closing while the periodic call is busy, or not... If you close while the numbers are updating, you will see that the WM_DELETE_WINDOW happened while your periodic call "was busy processing: True". If you close while the numbers are paused (meaning that the periodic callback isn't processing at that moment), you see that the close happened while it's "not busy".
In real-world usage, your .after() would use something like 30-100 milliseconds, to have a responsive GUI. This is just a demonstration to help you understand how to protect yourself against Tk's default "instantly interrupt all work when closing" behavior.
In summary: Make the WM_DELETE_WINDOW handler set a flag, and then check that flag periodically and manually .destroy() the window when it's safe (when your app is done with all work).
PS: You can also use WM_DELETE_WINDOW to ask the user if they REALLY want to close the window; and if they answer no, you don't set the flag. It's very simple. You just show a messagebox in your WM_DELETE_WINDOW and set the flag based on the user's answer.

You should use destroy() to close a tkinter window.
from Tkinter import *
root = Tk()
Button(root, text="Quit", command=root.destroy).pack()
root.mainloop()
Explanation:
root.quit()
The above line just Bypasses the root.mainloop() i.e root.mainloop() will still be running in background if quit() command is executed.
root.destroy()
While destroy() command vanish out root.mainloop() i.e root.mainloop() stops.
So as you just want to quit the program so you should use root.destroy() as it will it stop the mainloop()`.
But if you want to run some infinite loop and you don't want to destroy your Tk window and want to execute some code after root.mainloop() line then you should use root.quit().
Ex:
from Tkinter import *
def quit():
global root
root.quit()
root = Tk()
while True:
Button(root, text="Quit", command=quit).pack()
root.mainloop()
#do something

The easiest code is:
from tkinter import *
window = Tk()
For hiding the window : window.withdraw()
For appearing the window : window.deiconify()
For exiting from the window : exit()
For exiting from the window(If you've made a .exe file) :
from tkinter import *
import sys
window = Tk()
sys.exit()
And of course you have to place a button and use the codes above in a function so you can type the function's name in the command part of the button

Try The Simple Version:
import tkinter
window = Tk()
closebutton = Button(window, text='X', command=window.destroy)
closebutton.pack()
window.mainloop()
Or If You Want To Add More Commands:
import tkinter
window = Tk()
def close():
window.destroy()
#More Functions
closebutton = Button(window, text='X', command=close)
closebutton.pack()
window.mainloop()

you can use:
root = Tk()
def func():
print('not clossed')
root.protocol('wm_delete_window', func)
root.mainloop()

def on_closing():
if messagebox.askokcancel("Quit", "would you like to quit"):
window.destroy()
window.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", on_closing)
you can handle a window close event like this, if you wanna do something else just change the things that happen in the on_closing() function.

i say a lot simpler way would be using the break command, like
import tkinter as tk
win=tk.Tk
def exit():
break
btn= tk.Button(win, text="press to exit", command=exit)
win.mainloop()
OR use sys.exit()
import tkinter as tk
import sys
win=tk.Tk
def exit():
sys.exit
btn= tk.Button(win, text="press to exit", command=exit)
win.mainloop()