# optionmenu - Create and manipulate a option menu widget

## SYNOPSIS

optionmenu pathName ?options?

## INHERITANCE

itk::Widget <- Labeledwidget <- optionmenu

## STANDARD OPTIONS

activeBackground borderWidth foreground | activeBorderWidth cursor highlightColor | activeForeground disabledForeground highlightThickness | background font relief

See the "options" manual entry for details on the standard options.

## INHERITED OPTIONS

disabledForeground labelMargin state | labelBitmap labelPos | labelFont labelText | labelImage labelVariable

See the "LabeledWidget" manual entry for details on the inherited options.

## WIDGET-SPECIFIC OPTIONS

    Name:                   clickTime
    Class:                  ClickTime
    Command-Line Switch:	-clicktime

Interval time, in msec, used to determine that a single mouse click has occurred. Used to post menu on a "quick" mouse click. Note: changing this value may cause the sigle-click functionality to not work properly. The default is 150 msec.

    Name:                   command
    Class:                  Command
    Command-Line Switch:	-command

Specifies a Tcl command procedure to be evaluated following a change in the current option menu selection.

    Name:                   cyclicOn
    Class:                  CyclicOn
    Command-Line Switch:	-cyclicon

Turns on/off the 3rd mouse button capability. The value may be specified in any of the forms acceptable to Tcl_GetBoolean. This feature allows the right mouse button to cycle through the popup menu list without poping it up. The right mouse button cycles through the menu in reverse order. The default is true.

    Name:                   popupCursor
    Class:                  Cursor
    Command-Line Switch:	-popupcursor

Specifies the mouse cursor to be used for the popup menu. The value may have any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetCursor.

    Name:                   state
    Class:                  State
    Command-Line Switch:	-state

Specified one of two states for the optionmenu: normal, or disabled. If the optionmenu is disabled, then option menu selection is ignored.

    Name:                   width
    Class:                  Width
    Command-Line Switch:	-width

Specifies a fixed size for the menu button label in any of the forms acceptable to \Tk_GetPixels

. If the text is too small to fit in the label, the text is clipped. Note: Normally, when a new list is created, or new items are added to an existing list, the menu button label is resized automatically. Setting this option overrides that functionality.

## DESCRIPTION

The optionmenu command creates an option menu widget with options to manage it. An option menu displays a frame containing a label and a button. A pop-up menu will allow for the value of the button to change.

## METHODS

The optionmenu command creates a new Tcl command whose name is pathName. This command may be used to invoke various operations on the widget. It has the following general form:

    pathName option ?arg arg ...?

Option and the args determine the exact behavior of the command.

Many of the widget commands for an optionmenu take as one argument an indicator of which entry of the option menu to operate on. These indicators are called indexes and may be specified in any of the following forms:

number
  Specifies the entry numerically, where 0 corresponds to the top-most entry of the option menu, 1 to the entry below it, and so on.

end
  Indicates the bottommost entry in the menu. If there are no entries in the menu then -1 is returned.

select
  Returns the numerical index of the currently selected option menu entry. If no entries exist in the menu, then -1 is returned.

pattern
  If the index doesn't satisfy one of the above forms then this form is used. Pattern is pattern-matched against the label of each entry in the option menu, in order from the top down, until a matching entry is found. The rules of Tcl_StringMatch are used.

The following widget commands are possible for optionmenu widgets:

## WIDGET-SPECIFIC METHODS

pathName cget option
  Returns the current value of the configuration option given by option. Option may have any of the values accepted by the optionmenu command.

pathName configure ?option? ?value option value ...?
  Query or modify the configuration options of the widget. If no option is specified, returns a list describing all of the available options for pathName (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of this list). If option is specified with no value, then the command returns a list describing the one named option (this list will be identical to the corresponding sublist of the value returned if no option is specified). If one or more option-value pairs are specified, then the command modifies the given widget option(s) to have the given value(s); in this case the command returns an empty string. Option may have any of the values accepted by the optionmenu command.

pathName delete first ?last?
  Delete all of the option menu entries between first and last inclusive. If last is omitted then it defaults to first.

pathName disable index
  Disable the option menu entry specified by index. Disabling a menu item will prevent the user from being able to select this item from the menu. This only effects the state of the item in the menu, in other words, should the item be the currently selected item, the programmer is responsible for determining this condition and taking appropriate action.

pathName enable index
  Enable the option menu entry specified by index. Enabling a menu item allows the user to select this item from the menu.

pathName get ?first? ?last?
  If no arguments are specified, this operation returns the currently selected option menu item. Otherwise, it returns the name of the option at index first, or a range of options between first and last.

pathName index index
  Returns the numerical index corresponding to index.

pathName insert index string ?string?
  Insert an item, or list of items, into the menu at location index.

pathName select index
  Select an item from the option menu to be displayed as the currently selected item.

pathName sort mode
  Sort the current menu in either ascending, or descending order. The values increasing, or decreasing are also accepted.

## COMPONENTS

    Name:                   menuBtn
    Class:                  Menubutton

The menuBtn component is the option menu button which displays the current choice from the popup menu. See the "menubutton" widget manual entry for details on the menuBtn component item.

    Name:                   popupMenu
    Class:                  Menu

The popupMenu component is menu displayed upon selection of the menu button. The menu contains the choices for the option menu. See the "menu" widget manual entry for details on the popupMenu component item.

## EXAMPLE

     optionmenu .om -labelmargin 5 \\
         -labelon true -labelpos w -labeltext "Operating System :"

     .om insert end Unix VMS Linux OS/2 {Windows NT} DOS
     .om sort ascending
     .om select Linux

     pack .om  -padx 10 -pady 10

## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Michael J. McLennan

Borrowed some ideas (next & previous) from OptionButton class.

Steven B. Jaggers

Provided an initial prototype in [incr Tcl].

Bret Schuhmacher

Helped with popup menu functionality.

## AUTHOR

Alfredo Jahn

## KEYWORDS

optionmenu, widget