---
name: "optionmenu"
section: "3iwidgets"
platform: "linux"
package: "iwidgets3.1-doc"
version: "3.1.0-9"
release: "Debian 5.0 (Lenny)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/optionmenu"
---

# optionmenu(3iwidgets)

Create and manipulate a option menu widget

```

```

## NAME

optionmenu - Create and manipulate a option menu widget

## SYNOPSIS

**optionmenu** *pathName* ?*options*?

## INHERITANCE

itk::Widget \<- Labeledwidget \<- optionmenu

## STANDARD OPTIONS

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

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

## INHERITED OPTIONS

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

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 *arg*s 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 *index*es 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 zero 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