in reply to Optionmenu Variable in Name

I am trying to enable a specific number of optionmenus based on an entry variable.

Hi. First off, always try to make a complete working example, so we don't have to flesh out your code to test it ourselves.

I'm not sure if you want 3 Optionmenus, with only 1 active, OR you want a single Optionmenu, in which you can change it's options dynamically based on the Entry callback. You might look at Setting options in Tk::Optionmenu without the callback?

I don't know if you are aware of it, but the Optionmenu widget's "options" array setting can be dynamically changed. A simple example: 

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Tk;

my $mw = MainWindow->new();

my @opt1 = ('a'..'m');
my @opt2 = ('n'.. 'z');
my $var = 'a';
my $tvar = 'a';

my $opt = $mw->Optionmenu(
                          -command => \&show_choice,
                          -variable => \$var,
                          -textvariable => \$tvar,
                          -options => \@opt1,
                         )->pack;


$mw->Button(-text=>'Change Options',-command=>[\&change_ops, $opt])->p
+ack;

$mw->Button(-text=>'Exit', -command=>sub{$mw->destroy})->pack;

MainLoop;

sub show_choice
{
    print "got: ", shift, "\n"
}

sub change_ops
{
    my $op = shift;
    $tvar = 'n';
    $op->configure( -options => \@opt2 );
}

[download]
If you really want to have a bunch of disabled Optionmenus laying around, it's your choice, but post a more complete example.
I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth.
Old Perl Programmer Haiku ................... flash japh

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Optionmenu Variable in Name
by shortyfw06 (Beadle) on Mar 08, 2012 at 19:45 UTC

    Thank you for the response. I am trying to create 3 different option menus. In the big picture, there will be a maximum number of optionmenus available but all disabled. When the user types in the entry, in this case, 1 2 or 3, that number of optionmenus are enabled. Here is a working code. The sub input_lam_data is where I'd like to replace the three configure commands with a loop. 

    use Tk;
# Variables
my $lam_num;
my $ort1;
my $ort2;
my $ort3;

# Main Window
my $mw = new MainWindow;

# Build GUI
my $lam_mat_frm = $mw -> Frame();
my $lam_num_ent = $lam_mat_frm -> Entry(),
    -variable=> \$lam_num;
my $ort_optmen1 = $lam_mat_frm -> Optionmenu(-options => [qw(-45 0 45 
+90)],
    -variable => \$ort1);
my $ort_optmen2 = $lam_mat_frm -> Optionmenu(-options => [qw(-45 0 45 
+90)],
    -variable => \$ort2);
my $ort_optmen3 = $lam_mat_frm -> Optionmenu(-options => [qw(-45 0 45 
+90)],
    -variable => \$ort3);
$ort_optmen1 -> configure(-state => 'disabled');
$ort_optmen2 -> configure(-state => 'disabled');
$ort_optmen3 -> configure(-state => 'disabled');
my $lam_data_button = $lam_mat_frm->Button(-text=>"Input Laminate Data
+",
    -command=> \&input_lam_data);

# Geometry Management
$lam_mat_frm -> grid(-row=>1, -column=>1, -columnspan=>2);
$lam_num_ent -> grid(-row=>1,-column=>1);
$ort_optmen1 -> grid(-row=>2,-column=>1);
$ort_optmen2 -> grid(-row=>3,-column=>1);
$ort_optmen3 -> grid(-row=>4,-column=>1);
$lam_data_button -> grid(-row=>5,-column=>1);

MainLoop;

sub input_lam_data {
    $ort_optmen1 -> configure(-state => 'normal'); 
    $ort_optmen2 -> configure(-state => 'normal'); 
    $ort_optmen3 -> configure(-state => 'normal'); 
}

    [download]

    Thank you.

[reply]
[d/l]
      First off, your code had a sneaky error in which resulted from you not using warnings and strict. Specifically 
      my $lam_num_ent = $lam_mat_frm -> Entry(),
    -variable=> \$lam_num;

      [download]
      slips thru and runs without warnings and strict enabled. This results in the entry textvariable not working as expected. It should be 
      my $lam_num_ent = 
    $lam_mat_frm -> Entry(-textvariable=> \$lam_num);

      [download]

      To solve the "variable in name" problem, use hashes. In the code below, I only put the Optionmenu widgets in a hash, but for a decent program, you should put all information related to each Optionmenu into a hash, like this for example: 

      my  %ort_optmen;

$ort_optmen{$num}{'widget'} = whatever
$ort_optmen{$num}{'variable'} = whatever
$ort_optmen{$num}{'options'} = whatever

      [download]
      That way, all you need to know is $num, and you can get all the information about that Optionmenu widget.

      So here is a basic fix to show you the way. 

      #!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Tk;

# Variables
my $lam_num;
my $ort1;
my $ort2;
my $ort3;

# Main Window
my $mw = new MainWindow;

# Build GUI
my $lam_mat_frm = $mw -> Frame();
my $lam_num_ent = $lam_mat_frm -> Entry(-textvariable=> \$lam_num);

my %ort_optmen; #create hash to hold the optionmenu widgets


$ort_optmen{1} = $lam_mat_frm -> Optionmenu(-options => [qw(-45 0 45 9
+0)],
    -variable => \$ort1);
$ort_optmen{2} = $lam_mat_frm -> Optionmenu(-options => [qw(-45 0 45 9
+0)],
    -variable => \$ort2);
$ort_optmen{3} = $lam_mat_frm -> Optionmenu(-options => [qw(-45 0 45 9
+0)],
    -variable => \$ort3);

for(1..3){
$ort_optmen{$_} -> configure(-state => 'disabled');
}

my $lam_data_button = $lam_mat_frm->Button(-text=>"Input Laminate Data
+",
    -command=> \&input_lam_data);

# Geometry Management
$lam_mat_frm -> grid(-row=>1, -column=>1, -columnspan=>2);
$lam_num_ent -> grid(-row=>1,-column=>1);

$ort_optmen{1} -> grid(-row=>2,-column=>1);
$ort_optmen{2} -> grid(-row=>3,-column=>1);
$ort_optmen{3} -> grid(-row=>4,-column=>1);

$lam_data_button -> grid(-row=>5,-column=>1);

MainLoop;

sub input_lam_data {

print "$lam_num\n";

#reset them all off to begin with
foreach (1..3){
$ort_optmen{$_} -> configure(-state => 'disabled');
 }

# you need to do some valid range checking for $lam_num here
# I leave that to you

foreach my $num (1..$lam_num){
    $ort_optmen{$num} -> configure(-state => 'normal'); 
      }
}

      [download]
      </c>
      I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth.
      Old Perl Programmer Haiku ................... flash japh
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom