wx.SearchCtrl¶

A search control is a composite control with a search button, a text control, and a cancel button.

This control is implemented natively under macOS and GTK 3.6 or later and generically for all the other platforms.

Please note that this class provides many TextCtrl-like methods, but does not necessarily derive from wx.TextCtrl in all ports (although it does in the generic version). Only the methods defined in wx.TextEntry interface class are guaranteed to be available under all platforms.

^^

Window Styles¶

This class supports the following styles:

wx.TE_PROCESS_TAB: The control will receive wxEVT_CHAR events for TAB pressed - normally, TAB is used for passing to the next control in a dialog instead. For the control created with this style, you can still use Ctrl-Enter to pass to the next control from the keyboard.
wx.TE_NOHIDESEL: By default, the Windows text control doesn’t show the selection when it doesn’t have focus - use this style to force it to always show it. It doesn’t do anything under other platforms.
wx.TE_LEFT: The text in the control will be left-justified (default).
wx.TE_CENTRE: The text in the control will be centered (currently wxMSW and wxGTK2 only).
wx.TE_RIGHT: The text in the control will be right-justified (currently wxMSW and wxGTK2 only).
TE_CAPITALIZE: On PocketPC and Smartphone, causes the first letter to be capitalized. ^^

^^

Events Emitted by this Class¶

Handlers bound for the following event types will receive a wx.CommandEvent parameter.

EVT_SEARCH: Respond to a wxEVT_SEARCH event, generated when the search button is clicked. Note that this does not initiate a search on its own, you need to perform the appropriate action in your event handler. You may use:
```
event.GetString()
```
to retrieve the string to search for in the event handler code.
EVT_SEARCH_CANCEL: Respond to a wxEVT_SEARCH_CANCEL event, generated when the cancel button is clicked. ^^

See also

wx.TextCtrl

Class Hierarchy¶

Inheritance diagram for class SearchCtrl:

Control Appearance¶

wxMSW¶

wxMAC¶

wxGTK¶

Methods Summary¶

`__init__`	Default constructor.
`AppendText`	Appends the text to the end of the text control.
`AutoComplete`	Call this function to enable auto-completion of the text typed in a single-line text control using the given choices.
`AutoCompleteDirectories`	Call this function to enable auto-completion of the text using the file system directories.
`AutoCompleteFileNames`	Call this function to enable auto-completion of the text typed in a single-line text control using all valid file system paths.
`CanCopy`	Returns `True` if the selection can be copied to the clipboard.
`CanCut`	Returns `True` if the selection can be cut to the clipboard.
`CanPaste`	Returns `True` if the contents of the clipboard can be pasted into the text control.
`CanRedo`	Returns `True` if there is a redo facility available and the last operation can be redone.
`CanUndo`	Returns `True` if there is an undo facility available and the last operation can be undone.
`ChangeValue`	Sets the new text control value.
`Clear`	Clears the text in the control.
`Copy`	Copies the selected text to the clipboard.
`Create`
`Cut`	Copies the selected text to the clipboard and removes it from the control.
`ForceUpper`	Convert all text entered into the control to upper case.
`GetClassDefaultAttributes`
`GetDescriptiveText`	Return the text displayed when there is not yet any user input.
`GetHint`	Returns the current hint string.
`GetInsertionPoint`	Returns the insertion point, or cursor, position.
`GetLastPosition`	Returns the zero based index of the last position in the text control, which is equal to the number of characters in the control.
`GetMargins`	Returns the margins used by the control.
`GetMenu`	Returns a pointer to the search control’s menu object or `None` if there is no menu attached.
`GetRange`	Returns the string containing the text starting in the positions from and up to to in the control.
`GetSelection`	Gets the current selection span.
`GetStringSelection`	Gets the text currently selected in the control.
`GetValue`	Gets the contents of the control.
`IsCancelButtonVisible`	Returns the cancel button’s visibility state.
`IsEditable`	Returns `True` if the controls contents may be edited by user (note that it always can be changed by the program).
`IsEmpty`	Returns `True` if the control is currently empty.
`IsSearchButtonVisible`	Returns the search button visibility value.
`Paste`	Pastes text from the clipboard to the text item.
`Redo`	If there is a redo facility and the last operation can be redone, redoes the last operation.
`Remove`	Removes the text starting at the first given position up to (but not including) the character at the last position.
`Replace`	Replaces the text starting at the first position up to (but not including) the character at the last position with the given text.
`SelectAll`	Selects all text in the control.
`SelectNone`	Deselects selected text in the control.
`SetCancelBitmap`
`SetDescriptiveText`	Set the text to be displayed in the search control when the user has not yet typed anything in it.
`SetEditable`	Makes the text item editable or read-only, overriding the `wx.TE_READONLY` flag.
`SetHint`	Sets a hint shown in an empty unfocused text control.
`SetInsertionPoint`	Sets the insertion point at the given position.
`SetInsertionPointEnd`	Sets the insertion point at the end of the text control.
`SetMargins`	Attempts to set the control margins.
`SetMaxLength`	This function sets the maximum number of characters the user can enter into the control.
`SetMenu`	Sets the search control’s menu object.
`SetSearchBitmap`
`SetSearchMenuBitmap`
`SetSelection`	Selects the text starting at the first position up to (but not including) the character at the last position.
`SetValue`	Sets the new text control value.
`ShowCancelButton`	Shows or hides the cancel button.
`ShowSearchButton`	Sets the search button visibility value on the search control.
`Undo`	If there is an undo facility and the last operation can be undone, undoes the last operation.
`WriteText`	Writes the text into the text control at the current insertion position.

Properties Summary¶

`CancelButtonVisible`	See `IsCancelButtonVisible` and `ShowCancelButton`
`DescriptiveText`	See `GetDescriptiveText` and `SetDescriptiveText`
`Hint`	See `GetHint` and `SetHint`
`InsertionPoint`	See `GetInsertionPoint` and `SetInsertionPoint`
`LastPosition`	See `GetLastPosition`
`Margins`	See `GetMargins` and `SetMargins`
`Menu`	See `GetMenu` and `SetMenu`
`SearchButtonVisible`	See `IsSearchButtonVisible` and `ShowSearchButton`
`StringSelection`	See `GetStringSelection`
`Value`	See `GetValue` and `SetValue`

Class API¶

class wx.SearchCtrl(Control)¶

Possible constructors:

SearchCtrl()

SearchCtrl(parent, id=ID_ANY, value="", pos=DefaultPosition,
           size=DefaultSize, style=0, validator=DefaultValidator,
           name=SearchCtrlNameStr)

A search control is a composite control with a search button, a text control, and a cancel button.

Methods¶

__init__(self, *args, **kw)¶

Overloaded Implementations:

__init__ (self)

Default constructor.

__init__ (self, parent, id=ID_ANY, value=””, pos=DefaultPosition, size=DefaultSize, style=0, validator=DefaultValidator, name=SearchCtrlNameStr)

Constructor, creating and showing a text control.

Parameters

parent (wx.Window) – Parent window. Should not be None.
id (wx.WindowID) – Control identifier. A value of -1 denotes a default value.
value (string) – Default text value.
pos (wx.Point) – Text control position.
size (wx.Size) – Text control size.
style (long) – Window style. See wx.SearchCtrl.
validator (wx.Validator) – Window validator.
name (string) – Window name.

See also

wx.TextCtrl.Create , wx.Validator

AppendText(self, text)¶

Appends the text to the end of the text control.

Parameters: text (string) – Text to write to the text control.

Note

After the text is appended, the insertion point will be at the end of the text control. If this behaviour is not desired, the programmer should use GetInsertionPoint and SetInsertionPoint .

See also

WriteText

AutoComplete(self, *args, **kw)¶

Overloaded Implementations:

AutoComplete (self, choices)

Call this function to enable auto-completion of the text typed in a single-line text control using the given choices.

Parameters: choices (list of strings) –
Return type: bool
Returns: True if the auto-completion was enabled or False if the operation failed, typically because auto-completion is not supported by the current platform.

New in version 2.9.0.

See also

AutoCompleteFileNames

AutoComplete (self, completer)

Enable auto-completion using the provided completer object.

This method should be used instead of AutoComplete overload taking the array of possible completions if the total number of strings is too big as it allows returning the completions dynamically, depending on the text already entered by user and so is more efficient.

The specified completer object will be used to retrieve the list of possible completions for the already entered text and will be deleted by wx.TextEntry itself when it’s not needed any longer.

Notice that you need to include /textcompleter.h in order to define your class inheriting from wx.TextCompleter.

Parameters: completer (wx.TextCompleter) – The object to be used for generating completions if not None. If it is None, auto-completion is disabled. The wx.TextEntry object takes ownership of this pointer and will delete it in any case (i.e. even if this method returns False).
Return type: bool
Returns: True if the auto-completion was enabled or False if the operation failed, typically because auto-completion is not supported by the current platform.

New in version 2.9.2.

See also

wx.TextCompleter

AutoCompleteDirectories(self)¶

Call this function to enable auto-completion of the text using the file system directories.

Unlike AutoCompleteFileNames which completes both file names and directories, this function only completes the directory names.

Notice that currently this function is only implemented in wxMSW port and does nothing under the other platforms.

Return type: bool
Returns: True if the auto-completion was enabled or False if the operation failed, typically because auto-completion is not supported by the current platform.

New in version 2.9.3.

See also

AutoComplete

AutoCompleteFileNames(self)¶

Call this function to enable auto-completion of the text typed in a single-line text control using all valid file system paths.

Notice that currently this function is only implemented in wxMSW port and does nothing under the other platforms.

Return type: bool
Returns: True if the auto-completion was enabled or False if the operation failed, typically because auto-completion is not supported by the current platform.

New in version 2.9.0.

See also

AutoComplete

CanCopy(self)¶

Returns True if the selection can be copied to the clipboard.

Return type: bool

CanCut(self)¶

Returns True if the selection can be cut to the clipboard.

Return type: bool

CanPaste(self)¶

Returns True if the contents of the clipboard can be pasted into the text control.

On some platforms (Motif, GTK) this is an approximation and returns True if the control is editable, False otherwise.

Return type: bool

CanRedo(self)¶

Returns True if there is a redo facility available and the last operation can be redone.

Return type: bool

CanUndo(self)¶

Returns True if there is an undo facility available and the last operation can be undone.

Return type: bool

ChangeValue(self, value)¶

Sets the new text control value.

It also marks the control as not-modified which means that IsModified() would return False immediately after the call to ChangeValue .

The insertion point is set to the start of the control (i.e. position 0) by this function.

This functions does not generate the wxEVT_TEXT event but otherwise is identical to SetValue .

See User Generated Events vs Programmatically Generated Events for more information.

Parameters: value (string) – The new value to set. It may contain newline characters if the text control is multi-line.

New in version 2.7.1.

Clear(self)¶

Clears the text in the control.

Note that this function will generate a wxEVT_TEXT event, i.e. its effect is identical to calling SetValue (“”).

Copy(self)¶: Copies the selected text to the clipboard.

Create(self, parent, id=ID_ANY, value="", pos=DefaultPosition, size=DefaultSize, style=0, validator=DefaultValidator, name=SearchCtrlNameStr)¶

Parameters

parent (wx.Window) –
id (wx.WindowID) –
value (string) –
pos (wx.Point) –
size (wx.Size) –
style (long) –
validator (wx.Validator) –
name (string) –

Return type

bool

Cut(self)¶: Copies the selected text to the clipboard and removes it from the control.

ForceUpper(self)¶

Convert all text entered into the control to upper case.

Call this method to ensure that all text entered into the control is converted on the fly to upper case. If the control is not empty, its existing contents is also converted to upper case.

New in version 4.1/wxWidgets-3.1.0.

static GetClassDefaultAttributes(variant=WINDOW_VARIANT_NORMAL)¶

Parameters: variant (WindowVariant) –
Return type: wx.VisualAttributes

GetDescriptiveText(self)¶

Return the text displayed when there is not yet any user input.

Return type: string

GetHint(self)¶

Returns the current hint string.

See SetHint for more information about hints.

Return type: string

New in version 2.9.0.

GetInsertionPoint(self)¶

Returns the insertion point, or cursor, position.

This is defined as the zero based index of the character position to the right of the insertion point. For example, if the insertion point is at the end of the single-line text control, it is equal to GetLastPosition .

Notice that insertion position is, in general, different from the index of the character the cursor position at in the string returned by GetValue . While this is always the case for the single line controls, multi-line controls can use two characters "\\r\\n" as line separator (this is notably the case under MSW) meaning that indices in the control and its string value are offset by 1 for every line.

Hence to correctly get the character at the current cursor position, taking into account that there can be none if the cursor is at the end of the string, you could do the following:

def GetCurrentChar(textCtrl):

    pos = textCtrl.GetInsertionPoint()

    if pos == textCtrl.GetLastPosition():
        return ''

    return textCtrl.GetValue()[pos]

Return type: long

GetLastPosition(self)¶

Returns the zero based index of the last position in the text control, which is equal to the number of characters in the control.

Return type: wx.TextPos

GetMargins(self)¶

Returns the margins used by the control.

The x field of the returned point is the horizontal margin and the y field is the vertical one.

Return type: wx.Point

New in version 2.9.1.

Note

If given margin cannot be accurately determined, its value will be set to -1. On some platforms you cannot obtain valid margin values until you have called SetMargins .

See also

SetMargins

GetMenu(self)¶

Returns a pointer to the search control’s menu object or None if there is no menu attached.

Return type: wx.Menu

GetRange(self, from_, to_)¶

Returns the string containing the text starting in the positions from and up to to in the control.

The positions must have been returned by another wx.TextCtrl method. Please note that the positions in a multiline wx.TextCtrl do not correspond to the indices in the string returned by GetValue because of the different new line representations ( CR or CR LF) and so this method should be used to obtain the correct results instead of extracting parts of the entire value. It may also be more efficient, especially if the control contains a lot of data.

Parameters

from_ (long) –
to_ (long) –

Return type

string

GetSelection(self)¶

Gets the current selection span.

If the returned values are equal, there was no selection. Please note that the indices returned may be used with the other wx.TextCtrl methods but don’t necessarily represent the correct indices into the string returned by GetValue for multiline controls under Windows (at least,) you should use GetStringSelection to get the selected text.

Return type: tuple

GetStringSelection(self)¶

Gets the text currently selected in the control.

If there is no selection, the returned string is empty.

Return type: string

GetValue(self)¶

Gets the contents of the control.

Notice that for a multiline text control, the lines will be separated by (Unix-style) \n characters, even under Windows where they are separated by a \r\n sequence in the native control.

Return type: string

IsCancelButtonVisible(self)¶

Returns the cancel button’s visibility state.

Return type: bool

IsEditable(self)¶

Returns True if the controls contents may be edited by user (note that it always can be changed by the program).

In other words, this functions returns True if the control hasn’t been put in read-only mode by a previous call to SetEditable .

Return type: bool

IsEmpty(self)¶

Returns True if the control is currently empty.

This is the same as GetValue .empty() but can be much more efficient for the multiline controls containing big amounts of text.

Return type: bool

New in version 2.7.1.

IsSearchButtonVisible(self)¶

Returns the search button visibility value.

If there is a menu attached, the search button will be visible regardless of the search button visibility value.

Return type: bool

Paste(self)¶: Pastes text from the clipboard to the text item.

Redo(self)¶

If there is a redo facility and the last operation can be redone, redoes the last operation.

Does nothing if there is no redo facility.

Remove(self, from_, to_)¶

Removes the text starting at the first given position up to (but not including) the character at the last position.

This function puts the current insertion point position at to as a side effect.

Parameters

from_ (long) –
to_ (long) –

The first position.

The last position.

Replace(self, from_, to_, value)¶

Replaces the text starting at the first position up to (but not including) the character at the last position with the given text.

This function puts the current insertion point position at to as a side effect.

Parameters

from_ (long) –
to_ (long) –
value (string) – The value to replace the existing text with.

The first position.

The last position.

SelectAll(self)¶: Selects all text in the control.

See also

SetSelection

SelectNone(self)¶: Deselects selected text in the control.

New in version 2.9.5.

SetCancelBitmap(self, bmp)¶

SetDescriptiveText(self, text)¶

Set the text to be displayed in the search control when the user has not yet typed anything in it.

Parameters: text (string) –

SetEditable(self, editable)¶

Makes the text item editable or read-only, overriding the wx.TE_READONLY flag.

Parameters: editable (bool) – If True, the control is editable. If False, the control is read-only.

See also

IsEditable

SetHint(self, hint)¶

Sets a hint shown in an empty unfocused text control.

The hints are usually used to indicate to the user what is supposed to be entered into the given entry field, e.g. a common use of them is to show an explanation of what can be entered in a wx.SearchCtrl.

The hint is shown (usually greyed out) for an empty control until it gets focus and is shown again if the control loses it and remains empty. It won’t be shown once the control has a non-empty value, although it will be shown again if the control contents is cleared. Because of this, it generally only makes sense to use hints with the controls which are initially empty.

Notice that hints are known as cue banners under MSW or placeholder strings under macOS.

For the platforms without native hints support, the implementation has several known limitations. Notably, the hint display will not be properly updated if you change wx.TextEntry contents programmatically when the hint is displayed using methods other than SetValue or ChangeValue or others which use them internally (e.g. Clear ). In other words, currently you should avoid calling methods such as WriteText or Replace when using hints and the text control is empty. If you bind to the control’s focus and wxEVT_TEXT events, you must call wx.Event.Skip on them so that the generic implementation works correctly.

Another limitation is that hints are ignored for the controls with TE_PASSWORD style.

Parameters: hint (string) –
Return type: bool

New in version 2.9.0.

Note

Currently implemented natively on Windows (Vista and later only), macOS and GTK+ (3.2 and later).

Note

Hints can be used for single line text controls under all platforms, but only MSW and GTK+ 2 support them for multi-line text controls, they are ignored for them under the other platforms.

SetInsertionPoint(self, pos)¶

Sets the insertion point at the given position.

Parameters: pos (long) – Position to set, in the range from 0 to GetLastPosition inclusive.

SetInsertionPointEnd(self)¶

Sets the insertion point at the end of the text control.

This is equivalent to calling wx.TextCtrl.SetInsertionPoint with wx.TextCtrl.GetLastPosition argument.

SetMargins(self, *args, **kw)¶

Attempts to set the control margins.

When margins are given as wx.Point, x indicates the left and y the top margin. Use -1 to indicate that an existing value should be used.

Returns: True if setting of all requested margins was successful.

New in version 2.9.1.

Overloaded Implementations:

SetMargins (self, pt)

Parameters: pt (wx.Point) –
Return type: bool

SetMargins (self, left, top=-1)

Parameters

left (int) –
top (int) –

Return type

bool

SetMaxLength(self, len)¶

This function sets the maximum number of characters the user can enter into the control.

In other words, it allows limiting the text value length to len not counting the terminating NUL character.

If len is 0, the previously set max length limit, if any, is discarded and the user may enter as much text as the underlying native text control widget supports (typically at least 32Kb). If the user tries to enter more characters into the text control when it already is filled up to the maximal length, a wxEVT_TEXT_MAXLEN event is sent to notify the program about it (giving it the possibility to show an explanatory message, for example) and the extra input is discarded.

Note that in wxGTK this function may only be used with single line text controls.

Parameters: len (long) –

SetMenu(self, menu)¶

Sets the search control’s menu object.

If there is already a menu associated with the search control it is deleted.

Parameters: menu (wx.Menu) – Menu to attach to the search control.

SetSearchBitmap(self, bmp)¶

SetSearchMenuBitmap(self, bmp)¶

SetSelection(self, from_, to_)¶

Selects the text starting at the first position up to (but not including) the character at the last position.

If both parameters are equal to -1 all text in the control is selected.

Notice that the insertion point will be moved to from by this function.

Parameters

from_ (long) –
to_ (long) –

The first position.

The last position.

See also

SelectAll

SetValue(self, value)¶

Sets the new text control value.

It also marks the control as not-modified which means that IsModified() would return False immediately after the call to SetValue .

The insertion point is set to the start of the control (i.e. position 0) by this function unless the control value doesn’t change at all, in which case the insertion point is left at its original position.

Note that, unlike most other functions changing the controls values, this function generates a wxEVT_TEXT event. To avoid this you can use ChangeValue instead.

Parameters: value (string) – The new value to set. It may contain newline characters if the text control is multi-line.

ShowCancelButton(self, show)¶

Shows or hides the cancel button.

Note that this function does nothing in the native GTK version of the control: “Cancel” button is always shown automatically if the control is not empty and hidden if it is empty.

Parameters: show (bool) –

ShowSearchButton(self, show)¶

Sets the search button visibility value on the search control.

If there is a menu attached, the search button will be visible regardless of the search button visibility value.

Note that this function does nothing in the native GTK version of the control: “Search” button is always shown there.

Parameters: show (bool) –

Undo(self)¶

If there is an undo facility and the last operation can be undone, undoes the last operation.

Does nothing if there is no undo facility.

WriteText(self, text)¶

Writes the text into the text control at the current insertion position.

Parameters: text (string) – Text to write to the text control.

Note

Newlines in the text string are the only control characters allowed, and they will cause appropriate line breaks. See operator<<() and AppendText for more convenient ways of writing to the window. After the write operation, the insertion point will be at the end of the inserted text, so subsequent write operations will be appended. To append text after the user may have interacted with the control, call wx.TextCtrl.SetInsertionPointEnd before writing.