How to retrieve dict with the row column and value of table in Tkinter

Question

I have the following table in a Tkinter Gui and I wanted to know how I would be able to get a dict with all of the values in each of the cells and the corresponding row and col of each value in the dict as well. Here is the code:

import tkinter as Tkinter
import random

class App:
    def __init__(self, master):

        frame = Tkinter.Frame(master)

        self.data_readout = Tkinter.Button(frame, text="Collect Data", bd=10, height=2, width=10, command=lambda: self.dataReadout(self.table_values))
        self.data_readout.grid(row=0, column=0, padx=5, pady=5)

        self.table_values = Tkinter.LabelFrame(frame, text="Values", borderwidth=10, relief=Tkinter.GROOVE, padx=10, pady=10)
        self.table_values.grid(row=1, column=0, padx=20, pady=20)

        for i in range(4): #Rows
            for j in range(10): #Columns
                b = Tkinter.Entry(self.table_values, text="", width=5)
                b.grid(row=i, column=j)
                b.insert(0, str(round(random.random()*100)))

        frame.grid(row=0, column=0, padx=20, pady=20)

    def dataReadout(self, frame):
        #returns Dict of row and column
        pass


if __name__ == "__main__":
    root = Tkinter.Tk()
    app = App(root)
    root.mainloop()        

Answer 1

I suggest you store the table in a dictionary and use the built-in pickle module to load and save it.

Here's the code I used to create a initial table dictionary and "pickle it" for testing (in actual use you might want to initialize it to empty or zero values):

import pickle
from pprint import pprint
import random

# Create table
table = {}
filename = 'table.pkl'
height = 4
width = 10
for i in range(height):
    table[i] = [round(random.random()*100) for _ in range(width)]

with open(filename, 'wb') as output:
    pickle.dump(table, output, pickle.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL)

pprint(table)
print('table created')

Output showing values in table:

{0: [75, 68, 51, 27, 3, 99, 50, 33, 99, 63],
 1: [92, 79, 79, 66, 41, 18, 57, 9, 45, 75],
 2: [34, 75, 67, 92, 38, 93, 28, 76, 75, 38],
 3: [20, 10, 43, 48, 39, 16, 34, 75, 80, 16]}
table created

You can then load the data in the pickled file in the App.__init__() method and use it as shown:

class App:
    def __init__(self, master):

        frame = Tkinter.Frame(master)

        self.data_readout = Tkinter.Button(frame,
                                text="Collect Data", bd=10, height=2, width=10,
                                command=lambda: self.dataReadout(self.table_values))
        self.data_readout.grid(row=0, column=0, padx=5, pady=5)

        self.table_values = Tkinter.LabelFrame(frame,
                                text="Values", borderwidth=10,
                                relief=Tkinter.GROOVE, padx=10, pady=10)
        self.table_values.grid(row=1, column=0, padx=20, pady=20)

        # Read table.
        with open('table.pkl', 'rb') as infile:
            table = pickle.load(infile)

        # Use table.
        height = 4
        width = 10
        for i in range(height): #Rows
            for j in range(width): #Columns
                b = Tkinter.Entry(self.table_values, text="", width=5)
                b.grid(row=i, column=j)
                b.insert(0, str(table[i][j]))

        frame.grid(row=0, column=0, padx=20, pady=20)

    def dataReadout(self, frame):
        rowArr = []
        colArr = []
        info = frame.children.values()
        for children in frame.children.values():
            info = children.grid_info()
            print(info)
            for i in info:
                print(i)

Screenshot of app running. Note that the values being displayed are the same as those that were printed when the table was first created.

After the values in table are updated, if you wish you can easily update the associated file by via the same pickle.dump() function that was used in the code that initially created the pickled table.

Answer 2

Below is a minimal example that creates the Entry fields as a two-dimensional list, and later puts one of the values in a label:

import tkinter as Tkinter
import random

class App:
    def __init__(self, master):

        self.b = list()
        for i in range(4): #Rows
            self.b.append(list())        # to add the 2nd dimension to ith element
            for j in range(10): #Columns
                self.b[i].append(Tkinter.Entry(master, text="", width=5)) # b[i][j]
                self.b[i][j].grid(row=i, column=j)
                self.b[i][j].insert(0, str(round(random.random()*100)))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    root = Tkinter.Tk()
    app = App(root)
    Tkinter.Label(root, text=app.b[3][7].get()).grid()
    root.mainloop()