Why do I get "AttributeError: NoneType object has no attribute" using Tkinter? Where did the None value come from?

Question

I’ve created this simple GUI:

from tkinter import *

root = Tk()

def grabText(event):
    print(entryBox.get())    

entryBox = Entry(root, width=60).grid(row=2, column=1, sticky=W)

grabBtn = Button(root, text="Grab")
grabBtn.grid(row=8, column=1)
grabBtn.bind('<Button-1>', grabText)

root.mainloop()

When I click on the Grab button, an error occurs:

C:Python> python.exe myFilestestBed.py
Exception in Tkinter callback
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:Pythonliblib-tkTkinter.py", line 1403, in __call__
    return self.func(*args)
  File "myFilestestBed.py", line 10, in grabText
    if entryBox.get().strip()=="":
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'get'

Why is entryBox set to None?

_{See also Why do I get AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'something'? for the general case.}

Asked By: Arnkrishn

||

Source

Answer 1

The grid, pack and place functions of the Entry object and of all other widgets returns None. In python when you do a().b(), the result of the expression is whatever b() returns, therefore Entry(...).grid(...) will return None.

You should split that on to two lines like this:

entryBox = Entry(root, width=60)
entryBox.grid(row=2, column=1, sticky=W)

That way you get your Entry reference stored in entryBox and it’s laid out like you expect. This has a bonus side effect of making your layout easier to understand and maintain if you collect all of your grid and/or pack statements in blocks.

Answered By: Cassie Meharry

Answer 2

Change this line:

entryBox=Entry(root,width=60).grid(row=2, column=1,sticky=W)

into these two lines:

entryBox=Entry(root,width=60)
entryBox.grid(row=2, column=1,sticky=W)

Just as you already correctly do for grabBtn!

Answered By: Alex Martelli

Answer 3

For entryBox.get() to access get() method you need Entry object but Entry(root, width=60).grid(row=2, column=1, sticky=W) returns None.

entryBox = Entry(root, width=60) creates a new Entry Object.

Moreover, you won’t need
entryBox = entryBox.grid(row=2, column=1, sticky=W) as it will rewrite entryBox with None

Just replace entryBox = entryBox.grid(row=2, column=1, sticky=W)
with

entryBox = Entry(root, width=60)
entryBox.grid(row=2, column=1, sticky=W)

Answered By: 7u5h4r

Answer 4

Alternative solution for Python3.8+ versions that allows to put all of this in one line using the walrus operator:

(entryBox := Entry(root, width=60)).grid(row=2, column=1, sticky=W)

Now entryBox will refer to the Entry widget and also get packed.

For characters per line management I can suggest something like this:

(var := Button(
    text='fine', command=some_func, width=20, height=15, activebackground='grey'
)).grid(row=0, column=0, columnspan=0, rowspan=0, sticky='news')

But at that point might as well just do this "normally" (as suggested by other answers)

Sources:

Answered By: Matiiss

Why do I get "AttributeError: NoneType object has no attribute" using Tkinter? Where did the None value come from?

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