PyQt

About the Tutorial

PyQt is a GUI widgets toolkit. It is a Python interface for Qt, one of the most powerful, and
popular cross-platform GUI library. PyQt is a blend of Python programming language and the
Qt library. This introductory tutorial will assist you in creating graphical applications with the
help of PyQt.

Audience
This tutorial is designed for software programmers who are keen on learning how to develop
graphical applications using PyQt.

Prerequisites
You should have a basic understanding of computer programming terminologies. A basic
understanding of Python and any of the programming languages is a plus.

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 PyQt

Table of Contents
About the Tutorial ............................................................................................................................................... i

Audience ............................................................................................................................................................. i

Prerequisites ....................................................................................................................................................... i

Disclaimer & Copyright ........................................................................................................................................ i

Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................... ii

1. PYQT — INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1

2. PYQT — HELLO WORLD................................................................................................................. 3

3. PYQT — MAJOR CLASSES .............................................................................................................. 4

4. PYQT — USING QT DESIGNER ....................................................................................................... 8

5. PYQT — SIGNALS AND SLOTS ...................................................................................................... 11

6. PYQT — LAYOUT MANAGERS ...................................................................................................... 14

7. PYQT — QBOXLAYOUT CLASS ..................................................................................................... 16

8. PYQT — QGRIDLAYOUT CLASS .................................................................................................... 20

9. PYQT — QFORMLAYOUT CLASS .................................................................................................. 22

10. PYQT — QLABEL WIDGET............................................................................................................ 24

11. PYQT — QLINEEDIT WIDGET ....................................................................................................... 27

12. PYQT — QPUSHBUTTON WIDGET ............................................................................................... 31

13. PYQT — QRADIOBUTTON WIDGET.............................................................................................. 35

14. PYQT — QCHECKBOX WIDGET .................................................................................................... 38

15. PYQT — QCOMBOBOX WIDGET .................................................................................................. 41

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16. PYQT — QSPINBOX WIDGET ....................................................................................................... 44

17. PYQT — QSLIDER - WIDGET & SIGNAL ....................................................................................... 46

18. PYQT — QMENUBAR, QMENU & QACTION WIDGETS ................................................................. 49

19. PYQT — QTOOLBAR WIDGET ...................................................................................................... 52

20. PYQT — QDIALOG CLASS............................................................................................................. 55

21. PYQT — QMESSAGEBOX ............................................................................................................. 57

22. PYQT — QINPUTDIALOG WIDGET ................................................................................................. 2

23. PYQT — QFONTDIALOG WIDGET .................................................................................................. 5

24. PYQT — QFILEDIALOG WIDGET..................................................................................................... 7

25. PYQT — QTABWIDGET ................................................................................................................ 11

26. PYQT — QSTACKEDWIDGET ........................................................................................................ 14

27. PYQT — QSPLITTER WIDGET ....................................................................................................... 17

28. PYQT — MULTIPLE DOCUMENT INTERFACE................................................................................ 20

29. PYQT — DRAG AND DROP ........................................................................................................... 24

30. PYQT — DATABASE HANDLING ................................................................................................... 27

31. PYQT — DRAWING API IN PYQT .................................................................................................. 32

32. PYQT — BRUSHSTYLE CONSTANTS .............................................................................................. 33

33. PYQT — QCLIPBOARD ................................................................................................................. 36

34. PYQT — QDOCKWIDGET ............................................................................................................. 38

35. PYQT — QSTATUSBAR WIDGET ................................................................................................... 41

36. PYQT — QLISTWIDGET ................................................................................................................ 44

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37. PYQT — QPIXMAP CLASS ............................................................................................................ 46

38. PYQT — QSCROLLBAR WIDGET ................................................................................................... 48

39. PYQT — QCALENDAR WIDGET .................................................................................................... 51

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 1. PyQt — Introduction PyQt

PyQt is a GUI widgets toolkit. It is a Python interface for Qt, one of the most powerful, and
popular cross-platform GUI library. PyQt was developed by RiverBank Computing Ltd. The
latest version of PyQt can be downloaded from its official website:

www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/download

PyQt API is a set of modules containing a large number of classes and functions. While QtCore
module contains non-GUI functionality for working with file and directory etc., QtGui module
contains all the graphical controls. In addition, there are modules for working with XML
(QtXml), SVG (QtSvg), and SQL (QtSql), etc.

Supporting Environments
PyQt is compatible with all the popular operating systems including Windows, Linux, and Mac
OS. It is dual licensed, available under GPL as well as commercial license.

Windows
You can download and install an appropriate installer from the above download link
corresponding to Python version (2.7 or 3.4) and hardware architecture (32 bit or 64 bit). Note
that there are two versions of PyQt that are available namely, PyQt 4.8 and PyQt 5.5.

While PyQt4 is available for Python 2 as well as Python 3, PyQt5 can be used along with
Python 3.* only.

PyQt4 Windows Binaries

PyQt4-4.11.4-gpl-Py3.4-Qt4.8.7-x64.exe Windows 64 bit installer

PyQt4-4.11.4-gpl-Py3.4-Qt4.8.7-x32.exe Windows 32 bit installer

PyQt4-4.11.4-gpl-Py3.4-Qt5.5.0-x64.exe Windows 64 bit installer

PyQt4-4.11.4-gpl-Py3.4-Qt5.5.0-x32.exe Windows 32 bit installer

PyQt4-4.11.4-gpl-Py2.7-Qt4.8.7-x64.exe Windows 64 bit installer

PyQt4-4.11.4-gpl-Py2.7-Qt4.8.7-x32.exe Windows 32 bit installer

PyQt5 Windows Binaries

PyQt5-5.5-gpl-Py3.4-Qt5.5.0-x64.exe Windows 64 bit installer

PyQt5-5.5-gpl-Py3.4-Qt5.5.0-x32.exe Windows 32 bit installer

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 PyQt

Linux
For Ubuntu or any other debian Linux distribution, use the following command to install PyQt:

sudo apt-get install python-qt4

or

sudo apt-get install python-qt5

You can also build from the source code available on the ‘download’ page.

PyQt-x11-gpl-4.11.4.tar.gz Linux, UNIX source for PyQt4

PyQt-gpl-5.5.tar.gz Linux, UNIX, MacOS/X source for PyQt5

Mac OS
PyQtX project (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pyqtx/) hosts binaries of PyQt for Mac. Use
Homebrew installer as per the following command:

brew install pyqt

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 2. PyQt — Hello World PyQt

Creating a simple GUI application using PyQt involves the following steps:

 Import QtGui module.

 Create an application object.

 A QWidget object creates top level window. Add QLabel object in it.

 Set the caption of label as “hello world”.

 Define the size and position of window by setGeometry() method.

 Enter the mainloop of application by app.exec_() method.

import sys
from PyQt4 import QtGui
def window():
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
w = QtGui.QWidget()
b= QtGui.QLabel(w)
b.setText("Hello World!")
w.setGeometry(100,100,200,50)
b.move(50,20)
w.setWindowTitle(“PyQt”)
w.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

if __name__ == '__main__':
window()

The above code produces the following output:

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 3. PyQt — Major Classes PyQt

PyQt API is a large collection of classes and methods. These classes are defined in more than
20 modules. Following are some of the frequently used modules:

QtCore Core non-GUI classes used by other modules

QtGui Graphical user interface components

QtMultimedia Classes for low-level multimedia programming

QtNetwork Classes for network programming

QtOpenGL OpenGL support classes

QtScript Classes for evaluating Qt Scripts

QtSql Classes for database integration using SQL

QtSvg Classes for displaying the contents of SVG files

QtWebKit Classes for rendering and editing HTML

QtXml Classes for handling XML

QtAssistant Support for online help

QtDesigner Classes for extending Qt Designer

PyQt API contains more than 400 classes. The QObject class is at the top of class hierarchy. It
is the base class of all Qt objects. Additionally, QPaintDevice class is the base class for all
objects that can be painted.

QApplication class manages the main settings and control flow of a GUI application. It
contains main event loop inside which events generated by window elements and other
sources are processed and dispatched. It also handles system-wide and application-wide
settings.

QWidget class, derived from QObject and QPaintDevice classes is the base class for all user
interface objects. QDialog and QFrame classes are also derived from QWidget class. They
have their own sub-class system.

Following diagrams depict some important classes in their hierarchy.

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QWidget

QcomboBox QAbstractSpinBox QGroupBox QLineEdit QMainWindow

QDateTimeEdit QSpinBox

QDateEdit QTimeEdit

QColorDialog QFileDialog QFontDialog QInputDialog

QIODevice

QBuffer QFile QProcess

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QPaintDevice

QImage QPicture QPixMap QPrinter

Here is a select list of frequently used widgets:

QLabel Used to display text or image

QLineEdit Allows the user to enter one line of text

QTextEdit Allows the user to enter multi-line text

QPushButton A command button to invoke action

QRadioButton Enables to choose one from multiple options

QCheckBox Enables choice of more than one options

QSpinBox Enables to increase/decrease an integer value

Enables to access contents of a widget beyond

QScrollBar
display aperture

QSlider Enables to change the bound value linearly.

QComboBox Provides a dropdown list of items to select from

QMenuBar Horizontal bar holding QMenu objects

Usually at bottom of QMainWindow, provides status

QStatusBar
information.

Usually at top of QMainWindow or floating. Contains

QToolBar
action buttons

Provides a selectable list of items in ListMode or

QListView
IconMode

Off-screen image representation for display on

QPixmap
QLabel or QPushButton object

Modal or modeless window which can return

QDialog
information to parent window

A typical GUI based application’s top level window is created by QMainWindow widget object.
Some widgets as listed above take their appointed place in this main window, while others are
placed in the central widget area using various layout managers.

The following diagram shows the QMainWindow framework:

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PyQt

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 4. PyQt — Using Qt Designer PyQt

The PyQt installer comes with a GUI builder tool called Qt Designer. Using its simple drag and
drop interface, a GUI interface can be quickly built without having to write the code. It is
however, not an IDE such as Visual Studio. Hence, Qt Designer does not have the facility to
debug and build the application.

Creation of a GUI interface using Qt Designer starts with choosing a top level window for the
application.

You can then drag and drop required widgets from the widget box on the left pane. You can
also assign value to properties of widget laid on the form.

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The designed form is saved as demo.ui. This ui file contains XML representation of widgets and
their properties in the design. This design is translated into Python equivalent by using pyuic4
command line utility. This utility is a wrapper for uic module. The usage of pyuic4 is as follows:

pyuic4 –x demo.ui –o demo.py

In the above command, -x switch adds a small amount of additional code to the generated
XML so that it becomes a self-executable standalone application.

if __name__ == "__main__":
import sys
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
Dialog = QtGui.QDialog()
ui = Ui_Dialog()
ui.setupUi(Dialog)
Dialog.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

The resultant python script is executed to show the following dialog box:

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The user can input data in input fields but clicking on Add button will not generate any action
as it is not associated with any function. Reacting to user-generated response is called as
event handling.

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 5. PyQt — Signals and Slots PyQt

Unlike a console mode application, which is executed in a sequential manner, a GUI based
application is event driven. Functions or methods are executed in response to user’s actions
like clicking on a button, selecting an item from a collection or a mouse click etc., called
events.

Widgets used to build the GUI interface act as the source of such events. Each PyQt widget,
which is derived from QObject class, is designed to emit ‘signal’ in response to one or more
events. The signal on its own does not perform any action. Instead, it is ‘connected’ to a ‘slot’.
The slot can be any callable Python function.

In PyQt, connection between a signal and a slot can be achieved in different ways. Following
are most commonly used techniques:

QtCore.QObject.connect(widget, QtCore.SIGNAL(‘signalname’), slot_function)

A more convenient way to call a slot_function, when a signal is emitted by a widget is as

follows:

widget.signal.connect(slot_function)

Suppose if a function is to be called when a button is clicked. Here, the clicked signal is to be
connected to a callable function. It can be achieved in any of the following two techniques:

QtCore.QObject.connect(button, QtCore.SIGNAL(“clicked()”), slot_function)

or

button.clicked.connect(slot_function)

Example
In the following example, two QPushButton objects (b1 and b2) are added in QDialog window.
We want to call functions b1_clicked() and b2_clicked() on clicking b1 and b2 respectively.

When b1 is clicked, the clicked() signal is connected to b1_clicked() function

b1.clicked.connect(b1_clicked())

When b2 is clicked, the clicked() signal is connected to b2_clicked() function

QObject.connect(b2, SIGNAL("clicked()"), b2_clicked)

Example
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import sys
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
from PyQt4.QtGui import *
def window():
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
win = QDialog()
b1= QPushButton(win)
b1.setText("Button1")
b1.move(50,20)
b1.clicked.connect(b1_clicked)

b2=QPushButton(win)
b2.setText("Button2")
b2.move(50,50)
QObject.connect(b2,SIGNAL("clicked()"),b2_clicked)

win.setGeometry(100,100,200,100)
win.setWindowTitle("PyQt")
win.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

def b1_clicked():
print "Button 1 clicked"

def b2_clicked():
print "Button 2 clicked"

if __name__ == '__main__':
window()

The above code produces the following output:

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Output:
Button 1 clicked

Button 2 clicked

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 6. PyQt — Layout Managers PyQt

A GUI widget can be placed inside the container window by specifying its absolute coordinates
measured in pixels. The coordinates are relative to the dimensions of the window defined by
setGeometry() method.

setGeometry() syntax:
QWidget.setGeometry(xpos, ypos, width, height)

In the following code snippet, the top level window of 300 by 200 pixels dimensions is
displayed at position (10, 10) on the monitor.

import sys
from PyQt4 import QtGui
def window():
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
w = QtGui.QWidget()
b = QtGui.QPushButton(w)
b.setText("Hello World!")
b.move(50,20)
w.setGeometry(10,10,300,200)
w.setWindowTitle(“PyQt”)
w.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

if __name__ == '__main__':
window()

A PushButton widget is added in the window and placed at a position 50 pixels towards right
and 20 pixels below the top left position of the window.

This Absolute Positioning, however, is not suitable because of following reasons:

 The position of the widget does not change even if the window is resized.

 The appearance may not be uniform on different display devices with different
resolutions.

 Modification in the layout is difficult as it may need redesigning the entire form.

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Original window Resized window. Position of button is unchanged.

PyQt API provides layout classes for more elegant management of positioning of widgets inside
the container. The advantages of Layout managers over absolute positioning are:

 Widgets inside the window are automatically resized.

 Ensures uniform appearance on display devices with different resolutions

 Adding or removing widget dynamically is possible without having to redesign.

QLayout class is the base class from which QBoxLayout, QGridLayout and QFormLayout
classes are derived.

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