Python Tkinter: OptionMenu modify dropdown list width

Question

I have created an OptionMenu from Tkinter with a columnspan of 2. However, the dropdown list/menu does not match the width, so it does not look good. Any idea on how to match their width?

self.widgetVar = StringVar(self.top)
choices = ['', 'wire', 'register']
typeOption = OptionMenu(self.top, self.widgetVar, *choices)
typeOption.grid(column = 0, columnspan = 2, row = 0, sticky = 'NSWE', padx = 5, pady = 5)

Answer 1

There is no way to change the width of the dropdown.

You might want to consider the ttk.Combobox widget. It has a different look that might be what you're looking for.

Answer 2

One idea is to pad the right side (or left, or both) with spaces. Then, when you need the selected value, strip it with str strip. Not great, but better than nothing.

from tkinter import ttk
import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()

def func(selected_item):
  print(repr(selected_item.strip()))

max_len = 38
omvar = tk.StringVar()
choices = ['Default Choice', 'whoa', 'this is a bit longer'] + ['choice'+str(i) for i in range(3)]
padded_choices = [x+' '*(max_len-len(x)) for x in choices]
om = ttk.OptionMenu(root, omvar, 'Default Choice', *padded_choices, command=func)
om.config(width=30)
om.grid(row=0, column=0, padx=20, pady=20, sticky='nsew')

root.mainloop()

Answer 3

We can change the dropdown width by writing as follows:

typesOfSurgeries = ['Chemotherapy','Cataract']
listOfSurgeries = tkinter.OptionMenu(test_frame, variable, *typesofSurgeries)
listOfSurgeries.config(width=20)
listOfSurgeries.grid(row=14,column=1)

listOfSurgeries.config(width=20) sets the width of the OptionMenu

Answer 4

This is old, but hopefully the answer is still helpful.

the sticky options of N S W E are part of the tkinter package. So they should not be in quotations. Try

typeOption.grid(column = 0, columnspan = 2, row = 0, sticky = N+S+W+E, padx = 5, pady = 5)

Which is more obvious if instead of "from tkinter import *" you had

import tkinter as tk
typeOption.grid(column = 0, columnspan = 2, row = 0, sticky = tk.N+tk.S+tk.W+tk.E, padx = 5, pady = 5)

Then just make sure the column isn't shrinking by working with minsize in the frame's columnconfigure function.

**Note there are other combinations of parameters also built in to tkinter like NSEW but not NSWE