NAME

TableMatrix - Create and manipulate tables

Synopsis

$table = $parent->TableMatrix(?options?);

STANDARD OPTIONS

-anchor -background -cursor -exportselection -font -foreground -highlightbackground -highlightcolor -highlightthickness -insertbackground -insertborderwidth -insertofftime -insertontime -insertwidth -invertselected -relief -takefocus -xscrollcommand -yscrollcommand

Widget-specific Options

Switch: -autoclear
Name: autoClear
Class: AutoClear: A boolean value which specifies whether the first keypress in a cell will delete whatever text was previously there. Defaults to 0.
Switch: -bordercursor
Name: borderCursor
Class: Cursor: Specifies the name of the cursor to show when over borders, a visual indication that interactive resizing is allowed (it is thus affect by the value of -resizeborders). Defaults to crosshair .
Switch: -borderwidth or -bd
Name: borderWidth
Class: BorderWidth: Specifies a non-negative pixel value or list of values indicating the width of the 3-D border to draw on interior table cells (if such a border is being drawn; the <Brelief> option typically determines this). If one value is specified, a rectangle of this width will be drawn. If two values are specified, then only the left and right edges of the cell will have borders. If four values are specified, then the values correspond to the {left right top bottom} edges. This can be overridden by the a tag's borderwidth option. It can also be affected by the defined -drawmode for the table. Each value in the list must have one of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels.
Switch: -browsecommand or -browsecmd
Name: browseCommand
Class: BrowseCommand: Specifies a command (callback) which will be evaluated anytime the active cell changes. The Previous Index and the Current index is passed to this command as arguments.
Switch: -cache
Name: cache
Class: Cache: A boolean value that specifies whether an internal cache of the table contents should be kept. This greatly enhances speed performance when used with -command but uses extra memory. Can maintain state when both -command and -variable are empty. The cache is automatically flushed whenever the value of -cache or -variable changes, otherwise you have to explicitly call clear on it. Defaults to off.
Switch: -colorigin
Name: colOrigin
Class: Origin: Specifies what column index to interpret as the leftmost column in the table. This value is used for user indices in the table. Defaults to 0.
Switch: -cols
Name: cols
Class: Cols: Number of cols in the table. Defaults to 10.
Switch: -colseparator
Name: colSeparator
Class: Separator: Specifies a separator character that will be interpreted as the column separator when cutting or pasting data in a table. By default, columns are separated as elements of a tcl list.
Switch: -colstretchmode
Name: colStretchMode
Class: StretchMode: Specifies one of the following stretch modes for columns to fill extra allocated window space:

none: Columns will not stretch to fill the assigned window space. If the columns are too narrow, there will be a blank space at the right of the table. This is the default.
unset: Only columns that do not have a specific width set will be stretched.
all: All columns will be stretched by the same number of pixels to fill the window space allocated to the table. This mode can interfere with interactive border resizing which tries to force column width.
last: The last column will be stretched to fill the window space allocated to the table.
fill: (only valid for -rowstretch currently); The table will get more or less columns according to the window space allocated to the table. This mode has numerous quirks and may disappear in the future.

Switch: -coltagcommand
Name: colTagCommand
Class: TagCommand: Provides the name of a procedure that will be evaluated by the widget to determine the tag to be used for a given column. When displaying a cell, the table widget will first check to see if a tag has been defined using the tag col widget method. If no tag is found, it will evaluate the named procedure passing the column number in question as the sole argument. The procedure is expected to return the name of a tag to use, or a null string. Errors occuring during the evaluation of the procedure, or the return of an invalid tag name are silently ignored.; The Current column number is passed as an argument to the col command.
Switch: -colwidth
Name: colWidth
Class: ColWidth: Default column width, interpreted as characters in the default font when the number is positive, or pixels if it is negative. Defaults to 10.
Switch: -command
Name: command
Class: Command: Specified a command to use as a procedural interface to cell values. If -usecommand is true, this command will be used instead of any reference to the -variable array. When retrieving cell values, the return value of the command is used as the value for the cell.; Args passed to this callback: The Set Flag (=1 if setting, else retrieving), the current row, the current col, the cell value (if setting).
Switch: -drawmode
Name: drawMode
Class: DrawMode: Sets the table drawing mode to one of the following options:

slow: The table is drawn to an offscreen pixmap using the Tk bordering functions (double-buffering). This means there will be no flashing, but this mode is slow for larger tables.
compatible: The table is drawn directly to the screen using the Tk border functions. It is faster, but the screen may flash on update. This is the default.
fast: The table is drawn directly to the screen and the borders are done with fast X calls, so they are always one pixel wide only. As a side effect, it restricts -borderwidth to a range of 0 or 1. This mode provides best performance for large tables, but can flash on redraw and is not 100% Tk compatible on the border mode.
single: The table is drawn to the screen as in fast mode, but only single pixel lines are drawn (not square borders).

Switch: -flashmode
Name: flashMode
Class: FlashMode: A boolean value which specifies whether cells should flash when their value changes. The table tag flash will be applied to these cells for the duration specified by -flashtime . Defaults to 0.
Switch: -flashtime
Name: flashTime
Class: FlashTime: The amount of time, in 1/4 second increments, for which a cell should flash when its value has changed. -flashmode must be on. Defaults to 2.
Switch: -height
Name: height
Class: Height: Specifies the desired height for the window, in rows. If zero or less, then the desired height for the window is made just large enough to hold all the rows in the table. The height can be further limited by -maxheight .
Switch: -invertselected
Name: invertSelected
Class: InvertSelected: Specifies whether the foreground and background of an item should simply have their values swapped instead of merging the sel tag options when the cell is selected. Defaults to 0 (merge sel tag).
Switch: -ipadx
Name: ipadX
Class: Pad: A pixel value specifying the internal offset X padding for text in a cell. This value does not grow the size of the cell, it just causes the text to be drawn further from the cell border. It only affects one side (depending on anchor). Defaults to 0. See -padx for an alternate padding style.
Switch: -ipady
Name: ipadY
Class: Pad: A pixel value specifying the internal offset Y padding for text in a cell. This value does not grow the size of the cell, it just causes the text to be drawn further from the cell border. It only affects one side (depending on anchor). Defaults to 0. See -pady for an alternate padding style.
Switch: -justify
Name: justify
Class: Justify: How to justify multi-line text in a cell. It must be one of left, right, or center. Defaults to left.
Switch: -maxheight
Name: maxHeight
Class: MaxHeight: The max height in pixels that the window will request. Defaults to 600.
Switch: -maxwidth
Name: maxWidth
Class: MaxWidth: The max width in pixels that the window will request. Defaults to 800.
Switch: -multiline
Name: multiline
Class: Multiline: Specifies the default setting for the multiline tag option. Defaults to 1.
Switch: -pady
Name: padX
Class: Pad: A pixel value specifying the offset X padding for a cell. This value causes the default size of the cell to increase by two times the value (one for each side), unless a specific pixel size is chosen for the cell with the width command. This will force an empty area on the left and right of each cell edge. This padding affects all types of data in the cell. Defaults to 0. See -ipadx for an alternate padding style.
Switch: -pady
Name: padY
Class: Pad: A pixel value specifying the offset Y padding for a cell. This value causes the default size of the cell to increase by two times the value (one for each side), unless a specific pixel size is chosen for the cell with the height command. This will force an empty area on the top and bottom of each cell edge. This padding affects all types of data in the cell. Defaults to 0. See -ipadx for an alternate padding style.
Switch: -resizeborders
Name: resizeBorders
Class: ResizeBorders: Specifies what kind of interactive border resizing to allow, must be one of row, col, both (default) or none.
Switch: -rowheight
Name: rowHeight
Class:: RowHeight Default row height, interpreted as lines in the default font when the number is positive, or pixels if it is negative. Defaults to 1.
Switch: -roworigin
Name: rowOrigin
Class: Origin: Specifies what row index to interpret as the topmost row in the table. This value is used for user indices in the table. Defaults to 0.
Switch: -rows
Name: rows
Class: Rows: Number of rows in the table. Defaults to 10.
Switch: -rowseparator
Name: rowSeparator
Class: Separator: Specifies a separator character that will be interpreted as the row separator when cutting or pasting data in a table. By default, rows are separated as tcl lists.
Switch: -rowstretchmode
Name: rowStretchMode
Class: StretchMode: Specifies the stretch modes for rows to fill extra allocated window space. See -colstretchmode for valid options.
Switch: -rowtagcommand
Name: rowTagCommand
Class: TagCommand: Provides the name of a procedure that can evaluated by the widget to determine the tag to be used for a given row. The procedure must be defined by the user to accept a single argument (the row number), and return a tag name or null string. This operates in a similar manner as -coltagcommand , except that it applies to row tags.; The Current row number is passed as an argument to the row command.
Switch: -selectioncommand or -selcmd
Name: selectionCommand
Class: SelectionCommand: Specifies a command (callback) to evaluate when the selection is retrieved from a table via the selection mechanism (ie: evaluating ``selection get ''). The return value from this command will become the string passed on by the selection mechanism. The following arguments are passed to this callback: The number of rows in the selection, number of columns in the selection, the selection string, the number of cell in the selection.
Switch: -selectmode
Name: selectMode
Class: SelectMode: Specifies one of several styles for manipulating the selection. The value of the option may be arbitrary, but the default bindings expect it to be either single , browse , multiple , or extended ; the default value is browse . These styles are like those for the Tk listbox, except expanded for 2 dimensions.
Switch: -selecttitle
Name: selectTitles
Class: SelectTitles: Specifies whether title cells should be allowed in the selection. Defaults to 0 (disallowed).
Switch: -selecttype
Name: selectType
Class: SelectType: Specifies one of several types of selection for the table. The value of the option may be one of row , col , cell , or both (meaning row && col ); the default value is cell . These types define whether an entire row/col is affected when a cell's selection is changed (set or clear).
Switch: -sparsearray
Name: sparseArray
Class: SparseArray: A boolean value that specifies whether an associated Tcl array should be kept as a sparse array (1, the default) or as a full array (0). If true, then cell values that are empty will be deleted from the array (taking less memory). If false, then all values in the array will be maintained.
Switch: -state
Name: state
Class: State: Specifies one of two states for the entry: normal or disabled. If the table is disabled then the value may not be changed using widget commands and no insertion cursor will be displayed, even if the input focus is in the widget. Also, all insert or delete methods will be ignored. Defaults to normal .
Switch: -titlecols
Name: titleCols
Class: TitleCols: Number of columns to use as a title area. Defaults to 0.
Switch: -titlerows
Name: titleRows
Class: TitleRows: Number of rows to use as a title area. Defaults to 0.
Switch: -usecommand
Name: useCommand
Class: UseCommand: A boolean value which specifies whether to use the command option. This value sets itself to zero if command is used and returns an error. Defaults to 1 (will use command if specified).
Switch: -validate
Name: validate
Class: Validate: A boolean specifying whether validation should occur for the active buffer. Defaults to 0.
Switch: -validatecommand or -vcmd
Name: validateCommand
Class: ValidateCommand: Specifies a command (callback) to execute when the active cell is edited. This command is expected to return a 1 or 0. If it returns 1, then it is assumed the new value is OK, otherwise the new value is rejected (the edition will not take place). Errors in this command are handled in the background. The following arguments are supplied to the callback: row, col, oldContents of cell, potential new contents of cell, Current Index in the cell.
Switch: -variable
Name: variable
Class: Variable: Global Tcl array variable to attach to the table's C array. It will be created if it doesn't already exist or is a simple variable. Keys used by the table in the array are of the form row ,col for cells and the special key active which contains the value of the active cell buffer. The Tcl array is managed as a sparse array (the table doesn't require all valid indices have values). No stored value for an index is equivalent to the empty string, and clearing a cell will remove that index from the Tcl array, unless the -sparsearray options is set to 0.
Switch: -width
Name: width
Class: Width: Specifies the desired width for the window, in columns. If zero or less, then the desired width for the window is made just large enough to hold all the columns in the table. The width can be further limited by -maxwidth .
Switch: -wrap
Name: wrap
Class: Wrap: Specifies the default wrap value for tags. Defaults to 0.

DESCRIPTION

The TableMatrix command creates a 2-dimensional grid of cells. The table can use a Tcl array variable or Tcl command for data storage and retrieval. The widget has an active cell, the contents of which can be edited (when the state is normal). The widget supports a default style for the cells and also multiple tags , which can be used to change the style of a row, column or cell (see TAGS for details). A cell flash can be set up so that changed cells will change color for a specified amount of time (``blink''). Cells can have embedded images or windows, as described in Tags and Embedded Windows respectively.

One or more cells may be selected as described below. If a table is exporting its selection (see -exportselection option), then it will observe the standard X11 protocols for handling the selection. See the Selection for details. It is not necessary for all the cells to be displayed in the table window at once; commands described below may be used to change the view in the window. Tables allow scrolling in both directions using the standard -xscrollcommand and -yscrollcommand options. They also support scanning, as described below.

In order to obtain good performance, the table widget supports multiple drawing modes, two of which are fully Tk compatible.

Indices

Many of the widget commands for tables take one or more indices as arguments. An index specifies a particular cell of the table, in any of the following ways:

number,number: Specifies the cell as a numerical index of row,col which corresponds to the index of the associated Perl Hash, where -roworigin,-colorigin corresponds to the first cell in the table (0,0 by default). The values for row and column will be constrained to actual values in the table, which means a valid cell is always found.
active: Indicates the cell that has the location cursor. It is specified with the activate widget command.
anchor: Indicates the anchor point for the selection, which is set with the selection anchor widget command.
bottomright: Indicates the bottom-rightmost cell visible in the table.
end: Indicates the bottom right cell of the table.
origin: Indicates the top-leftmost editable cell of the table, not necessarily in the display. This takes into account the user specified origin and title area.
topleft: Indicates the top-leftmost editable cell visible in the table (this excludes title cells).
@x,y: Indicates the cell that covers the point in the table window specified by x and y (in pixel coordinates). If no cell covers that point, then the closest cell to that point is used. In the widget command descriptions below, arguments named index , first , and last always contain text indices in one of the above forms.

Embedded Windows

There may be any number of embedded windows in a table widget (one per cell), and any widget may be used as an embedded window (subject to the usual rules for geometry management, which require the table window to be the parent of the embedded window or a descendant of its parent). The embedded window's position on the screen will be updated as the table is modified or scrolled, and it will be mapped and unmapped as it moves into and out of the visible area of the table widget. Each embedded window occupies one cell's worth of space in the table widget, and it is referred to by the index of the cell in the table. Windows associated with the table widget are destroyed when the table widget is destroyed.

Windows are used for display purposes only. A value still exists for that cell, but will not be shown unless the window is deleted in some way. If the window is destroyed or lost by the table widget to another geometry manager, then any data associated with it is lost (the cell it occupied will no longer appear in window names ).

When an embedded window is added to a table widget with the window configure widget command, several configuration options may be associated with it. These options may be modified with later calls to the window configure widget command. The following options are currently supported:

-create callback: NOT CURRENTLY SUPPORTED. Specifies a Tcl script that may be evaluated to create the window for the annotation. If no -window option has been specified for this cell then this script will be evaluated when the cell is about to be displayed on the screen. Script must create a window for the cell and return the name of that window as its result. If the cell's window should ever be deleted, the script will be evaluated again the next time the cell is displayed.
-background or -bg color: Background color of the cell. If not specified, it uses the table's default background.
-borderwidth or -bd pixelList: Borderwidth of the cell, of the same format for the table, but may also be empty to inherit the default table borderwidth value (the default).
-padx pixels: As defined in the Tk options man page.
-pady pixels: As defined in the Tk options man page.
-relief relief: The relief to use for the cell in which the window lies. If not specified, it uses the table's default relief.
-sticky sticky: Stickiness of the window inside the cell, as defined by the grid command.
-window $widget: Specifies the a window to display in the annotation. It must exist before being specified here.

the Selection

Table selections are available as type STRING. By default, the value of the selection will be the values of the selected cells in nested Tcl list form where each row is a list and each column is an element of a row list. You can change the way this value is interpreted by setting the -rowseparator and -colseparator options. For example, default Excel format would be to set -rowseparator to ``\n'' and -colseparator to ``\t''. Changing these values affects both how the table sends out the selection and reads in pasted data, ensuring that the table should always be able to cut and paste to itself. It is possible to change how pastes are handled by editing the table library procedure tk_tablePasteHandler . This might be necessary if -selectioncommand is set.

Row/Col Spanning

Individual cells can span multiple rows and/or columns. This is done via the spans command (see below for exact arguments). Cells in the title area that span are not permitted to span beyond the title area, and will be constrained accordingly. If the title area shrinks during a configure, sanity checking will occur to ensure the above. You may set spans on regular cells that extend beyond the defined row/col area. These spans will not be constrained, so that when the defined row/col area expands, the span will expand with it.

When setting a span, checks are made as to whether the span would overlap an already spanning or hidden cell. This is an error and it not allowed. Spans can affect the overall speed of table drawing, although not significantly. If spans are not used, then there is no performance loss.

Cells hidden by spanning cells still have valid data. This will be seen during cut and paste operations that involve hidden cells, or through direct access by a command like get or set .

The drawing properties of spanning cells apply to only the visual area of the cell. For example, if a cell is center justified over 5 columns, then when viewing any portion of those columns, it will appear centered in the visible area. The non-visible column area will not be considered in the centering calculations.

Command Substitution

The various option based commands that the table supports all support the familiar Tk %-substitution model (see Tk::bind for more details). The following %-sequences are recognized and substituted by the table widget:

%c: For SelectionCommand , it is the maximum number of columns in any row in the selection. Otherwise it is the column of the triggered cell.
%C: A convenience substitution for %r ,%c .
%i: For SelectionCommand, it is the total number of cells in the selection. For Command , it is 0 for a read (get) and 1 for a write (set). Otherwise it is the current cursor position in the cell.
%r: For SelectionCommand , it is the number of rows in the selection. Otherwise it is the row of the triggered cell.
%s: For ValidateCommand , it is the current value of the cell being validated. For SelectionCommand , it is the default value of the selection. For BrowseCommand , it is the index of the last active cell. For Command , it is empty for reads (get) and the current value of the cell for writes (set).
%S: For ValidateCommand , it is the potential new value of the cell being validated. For BrowseCommand , it is the index of the new active cell.
%W: The pathname to the window for which the command was generated.

Widget Methods

The $window->TableMatrix method creates a widget object. This object supports the configure and cget methods described in the Tk::options manpage which can be used to enquire and modify the options described above. The widget also inherits all the methods provided by the generic Tk::Widget class.

The following additional methods are available for scale widgets:

$table->activate(index): Sets the active cell to the one indicated by index.
$table->bbox(first, ?last?): It returns the bounding box for the specified cell (range) as a 4-tuple of x, y, width and height in pixels. It clips the box to the visible portion, if any, otherwise an empty string is returned.
$table->border(option, args): This command is a voodoo hack to implement border sizing for tables. This is normally called through bindings, with the following as valid options:

$table->borderMark(x, y, ?row|col?): Records x and y and the row and/or column border under that point in the table window, if any; used in conjunction with later border dragto commands. Typically this command is associated with a mouse button press in the widget. If row or col is not specified, it returns a tuple of both border indices (an empty item means no border). Otherwise, just the specified item is returned.
$table->borderDragto(x, y): This command computes the difference between its x and y arguments and the x and y arguments to the last border mark command for the widget. It then adjusts the previously marked border by the difference. This command is typically associated with mouse motion events in the widget, to produce the effect of interactive border resizing.

$table->cget(option): Returns the current value of the configuration option given by option . Option may have any of the values accepted by the table command.
$table->clear(option, ?first?, ?last?): This command is a convenience routine to clear certain state information managed by the table. first and last represent valid table indices. If neither are specified, then the command operates on the whole table. The following options are recognized:

$table->clearCache(?first?, ?last?): Clears the specified section of the cache, if the table has been keeping one.
$table->clearSizes(?first?, ?last?): Clears the specified row and column areas of specific height/width dimensions. When just one index is specified, for example 2,0 , that is interpreted as row 2 and column 0.
$table->clearTags(?first?, ?last?): Clears the specified area of tags (all row, column and cell tags).
$table->clearAll(?first?, ?last?): Performs all of the above clear functions on the specified area.

$table->colWidth(?col?, ?value, col, value, ...?): If no col is specified, returns a list describing all cols for which a width has been set. If col is specified with no value, it prints out the width of that col in characters (positive number) or pixels (negative number). If one or more col-value pairs are specified, then it sets each col to be that width in characters (positive number) or pixels (negative number). If value is default , then the col uses the default width, specified by -colwidth .

Default Bindings

The initialization creates class bindings that give the following default behaviour:

[1]: Clicking Button-1 in a cell activates that cell. Clicking into an already active cell moves the insertion cursor to the character nearest the mouse.
[2]: Moving the mouse while Button-1 is pressed will stroke out a selection area. Exiting while Button-1 is pressed causing scanning to occur on the table along with selection.
[3]: Moving the mouse while Button-2 is pressed causes scanning to occur without any selection.
[4]: Home moves the table to have the origin in view.
[5]: End moves the table to have the end cell in view.
[6]: Control-Home moves the table to the origin and activates that cell.
[7]: Control-End moves the table to the end and activates that cell.
[8]: Shift-Control-Home extends the selection to the origin.
[9]: Shift-Control-End extends the selection to the end.
[10]: The left, right, up and down arrows move the active cell.
[11]: Shift-<arrow> extends the selection in that direction.
[12]: Control-leftarrow and Control-rightarrow move the insertion cursor within the cell.
[13]: Control-slash selects all the cells.
[14]: Control-backslash clears selection from all the cells.
[15]: Backspace deletes the character before the insertion cursor in the active cell.
[16]: Delete deletes the character after the insertion cursor in the active cell.
[17]: Escape rereads the value of the active cell from the specified data source, discarding any edits that have may been performed on the cell.
[18]: Control-a moves the insertion cursor to the beginning of the active cell.
[19]: Control-e moves the insertion cursor to the end of the active cell.
[20]: Control-minus and Control-equals decrease and increase the width of the column with the active cell in it.
[21]: Moving the mouse while Button-3 (the right button on Windows) is pressed while you are over a border will cause interactive resizing of that row and/or column to occur, based on the value of -resizeborders . Some bindings may have slightly different behavior dependent on the -selectionmode of the widget. If the widget is disabled using the -state option, then its view can still be adjusted and cells can still be selected, but no insertion cursor will be displayed and no cell modifications will take place. The behavior of tables can be changed by defining new bindings for individual widgets or by redefining the class bindings. The default bindings are either compiled in the TableMatrix.pm file

Performance Issues

The number of rows and columns or a table widget should not significantly affect the speed of redraw. Recalculation and redraw of table parameters and cells is restricted as much as possible. The display cell with the insert cursor is redrawn each time the cursor blinks, which causes a steady stream of graphics traffic. Set the -insertofftime option to 0 avoid this. The use of a -command with the table without a cache can cause significant slow-down, as the command is called once for each request of a cell value.

Examples

Set the topleft title area to be one spanning cell. This overestimates both row and column span by one, but the command does all the constraining for us. $table span [$table cget -roworigin],[$table cget -colorigin] [$table cget -titlerows],[$table cget -titlecols] Force a table window refresh (useful for the slight chance that a bug in the table is not causing proper refresh): $table configure -padx [$table cget -padx]

Keywords

table, widget, extension

TableMatrix - Create and manipulate tables