GtkEditable

GtkEditable — Interface for text-editing widgets

Signals

void changed Run Last
void delete-text Run Last
void insert-text Run Last

Types and Values

Object Hierarchy

    GInterface
    ╰── GtkEditable

Known Implementations

GtkEditable is implemented by GtkEntry, GtkSearchEntry and GtkSpinButton.

Includes

#include <gtk/gtk.h>

Description

The GtkEditable interface is an interface which should be implemented by text editing widgets, such as GtkEntry and GtkSpinButton. It contains functions for generically manipulating an editable widget, a large number of action signals used for key bindings, and several signals that an application can connect to to modify the behavior of a widget.

As an example of the latter usage, by connecting the following handler to “insert-text”, an application can convert all entry into a widget into uppercase.

Forcing entry to uppercase.

#include <ctype.h>;

void
insert_text_handler (GtkEditable *editable,
                     const gchar *text,
                     gint         length,
                     gint        *position,
                     gpointer     data)
{
  gchar *result = g_utf8_strup (text, length);

  g_signal_handlers_block_by_func (editable,
                               (gpointer) insert_text_handler, data);
  gtk_editable_insert_text (editable, result, length, position);
  g_signal_handlers_unblock_by_func (editable,
                                     (gpointer) insert_text_handler, data);

  g_signal_stop_emission_by_name (editable, "insert_text");

  g_free (result);
}

Functions

gtk_editable_select_region ()

void
gtk_editable_select_region (GtkEditable *editable,
                            gint start_pos,
                            gint end_pos);

Selects a region of text. The characters that are selected are those characters at positions from start_pos up to, but not including end_pos . If end_pos is negative, then the characters selected are those characters from start_pos to the end of the text.

Note that positions are specified in characters, not bytes.

[virtual set_selection_bounds]

Parameters

editable

a GtkEditable

start_pos

start of region

end_pos

end of region

gtk_editable_get_selection_bounds ()

gboolean
gtk_editable_get_selection_bounds (GtkEditable *editable,
                                   gint *start_pos,
                                   gint *end_pos);

Retrieves the selection bound of the editable. start_pos will be filled with the start of the selection and end_pos with end. If no text was selected both will be identical and FALSE will be returned.

Note that positions are specified in characters, not bytes.

Parameters

editable

a GtkEditable

start_pos

location to store the starting position, or NULL.

[out][allow-none]

end_pos

location to store the end position, or NULL.

[out][allow-none]

Returns

TRUE if an area is selected, FALSE otherwise

gtk_editable_insert_text ()

void
gtk_editable_insert_text (GtkEditable *editable,
                          const gchar *new_text,
                          gint new_text_length,
                          gint *position);

Inserts new_text_length bytes of new_text into the contents of the widget, at position position .

Note that the position is in characters, not in bytes. The function updates position to point after the newly inserted text.

[virtual do_insert_text]

Parameters

editable

a GtkEditable

new_text

the text to append

new_text_length

the length of the text in bytes, or -1

position

location of the position text will be inserted at.

[inout]

gtk_editable_delete_text ()

void
gtk_editable_delete_text (GtkEditable *editable,
                          gint start_pos,
                          gint end_pos);

Deletes a sequence of characters. The characters that are deleted are those characters at positions from start_pos up to, but not including end_pos . If end_pos is negative, then the characters deleted are those from start_pos to the end of the text.

Note that the positions are specified in characters, not bytes.

[virtual do_delete_text]

Parameters

editable

a GtkEditable

start_pos

start position

end_pos

end position

gtk_editable_get_chars ()

gchar *
gtk_editable_get_chars (GtkEditable *editable,
                        gint start_pos,
                        gint end_pos);

Retrieves a sequence of characters. The characters that are retrieved are those characters at positions from start_pos up to, but not including end_pos . If end_pos is negative, then the characters retrieved are those characters from start_pos to the end of the text.

Note that positions are specified in characters, not bytes.

Parameters

editable

a GtkEditable

start_pos

start of text

end_pos

end of text

Returns

a pointer to the contents of the widget as a string. This string is allocated by the GtkEditable implementation and should be freed by the caller.

gtk_editable_cut_clipboard ()

void
gtk_editable_cut_clipboard (GtkEditable *editable);

Removes the contents of the currently selected content in the editable and puts it on the clipboard.

Parameters

editable

a GtkEditable

gtk_editable_copy_clipboard ()

void
gtk_editable_copy_clipboard (GtkEditable *editable);

Copies the contents of the currently selected content in the editable and puts it on the clipboard.

Parameters

editable

a GtkEditable

gtk_editable_paste_clipboard ()

void
gtk_editable_paste_clipboard (GtkEditable *editable);

Pastes the content of the clipboard to the current position of the cursor in the editable.

Parameters

editable

a GtkEditable

gtk_editable_delete_selection ()

void
gtk_editable_delete_selection (GtkEditable *editable);

Deletes the currently selected text of the editable. This call doesn’t do anything if there is no selected text.

Parameters

editable

a GtkEditable

gtk_editable_set_position ()

void
gtk_editable_set_position (GtkEditable *editable,
                           gint position);

Sets the cursor position in the editable to the given value.

The cursor is displayed before the character with the given (base 0) index in the contents of the editable. The value must be less than or equal to the number of characters in the editable. A value of -1 indicates that the position should be set after the last character of the editable. Note that position is in characters, not in bytes.

Parameters

editable

a GtkEditable

position

the position of the cursor

gtk_editable_get_position ()

gint
gtk_editable_get_position (GtkEditable *editable);

Retrieves the current position of the cursor relative to the start of the content of the editable.

Note that this position is in characters, not in bytes.

Parameters

editable

a GtkEditable

Returns

the cursor position

gtk_editable_set_editable ()

void
gtk_editable_set_editable (GtkEditable *editable,
                           gboolean is_editable);

Determines if the user can edit the text in the editable widget or not.

Parameters

editable

a GtkEditable

is_editable

TRUE if the user is allowed to edit the text in the widget

gtk_editable_get_editable ()

gboolean
gtk_editable_get_editable (GtkEditable *editable);

Retrieves whether editable is editable. See gtk_editable_set_editable().

Parameters

editable

a GtkEditable

Returns

TRUE if editable is editable.

Types and Values

GtkEditable

typedef struct _GtkEditable GtkEditable;

Signal Details

The “changed” signal

void
user_function (GtkEditable *editable,
               gpointer     user_data)

The ::changed signal is emitted at the end of a single user-visible operation on the contents of the GtkEditable.

E.g., a paste operation that replaces the contents of the selection will cause only one signal emission (even though it is implemented by first deleting the selection, then inserting the new content, and may cause multiple ::notify::text signals to be emitted).

Parameters

editable

the object which received the signal

user_data

user data set when the signal handler was connected.

Flags: Run Last

The “delete-text” signal

void
user_function (GtkEditable *editable,
               int          start_pos,
               int          end_pos,
               gpointer     user_data)

This signal is emitted when text is deleted from the widget by the user. The default handler for this signal will normally be responsible for deleting the text, so by connecting to this signal and then stopping the signal with g_signal_stop_emission(), it is possible to modify the range of deleted text, or prevent it from being deleted entirely. The start_pos and end_pos parameters are interpreted as for gtk_editable_delete_text().

Parameters

editable

the object which received the signal

start_pos

the starting position

end_pos

the end position

user_data

user data set when the signal handler was connected.

Flags: Run Last

The “insert-text” signal

void
user_function (GtkEditable *editable,
               char        *new_text,
               int          new_text_length,
               gpointer     position,
               gpointer     user_data)

This signal is emitted when text is inserted into the widget by the user. The default handler for this signal will normally be responsible for inserting the text, so by connecting to this signal and then stopping the signal with g_signal_stop_emission(), it is possible to modify the inserted text, or prevent it from being inserted entirely.

Parameters

editable

the object which received the signal

new_text

the new text to insert

new_text_length

the length of the new text, in bytes, or -1 if new_text is nul-terminated

position

the position, in characters, at which to insert the new text. this is an in-out parameter. After the signal emission is finished, it should point after the newly inserted text.

[inout][type int]

user_data

user data set when the signal handler was connected.

Flags: Run Last

© 2005–2020 The GNOME Project
Licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 or later.
https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/3.24/GtkEditable.html