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Information you need to build high-quality Tk user interfaces.

The widget roundup provides you with a quick and easy reference to the most important features and options for each Tk widget.

Listbox

Widget Essentials

When to use: To allow the user to choose one or more items from a possibly large fixed list of choices, in situations where screen real estate is not overly constrained.
Tcl usage: set listvar [list items for listbox]
tk::listbox .l -listvariable listvar
Ruby usage: $listvar = TkVariable.new ( list of items for listbox );
TkListbox.new(parent) {listvariable $listvar}
Reference: (at www.tcl.tk)

Common Options

listvariable A variable that holds the list of items contained in the listbox; changing this variable will update the items in the listbox.
height The number of rows high the listbox will request.
selectmode Whether the user can select only a single item (use a value of "browse"), or multiple items (use "extended").
yscrollcommand Used to connect the listbox to a scrollbar's "set" method.

How do I...

Find out which item(s) are currently selected? Call the "curselection" method, which returns a list of the indices (0..n-1) of the selected items.
Change which items(s) are currently selected. To deselect all items in a range, call "selection clear firstidx ?lastidx?".
To select all items in a range, call "selection set firstidx ?lastidx?".
Disable the listbox? Set the "state" configuration option to "disabled".
To re-enable, set the "state" configuration option to "normal".
Find out what item is at a given index? Look at that item in the list held in the variable named in the listvariable option.
Make sure a particular item is in view? Call the "see index" method.
Tell when the selection in the listbox changes? You can bind to the "<ListboxSelect>" virtual event.