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I am creating a set of buttons via this function:

from tkinter import *
from random import randint

window = Tk()
window.title("Test")
window.geometry('200x200')
color = ["red","blue","green","yellow","black","purple","orange"]
RandInt = 0
j = 0
h = 0

def ButtonDef(xvar = 0,yvar = 0): 
    btn = Button(command =lambda:[RandomColor()])
    btn.grid()
    btn.place(x = xvar*50, y = yvar*50, width = 50, height = 50)

    def RandomColor():
        RandInt = randint (0,6)
        btn.configure(bg = color[RandInt])

while j in range (4):
    i = 0
    j += 1
    while i in range (4):
        ButtonDef(i,h)
        i += 1
        if i == 4:
            h += 1
window.mainloop()

However, my RandomColor() function is changing only the color of the very button i have pressed - that is fun too, but i wonder how i can make it randomly change the color of all buttons. When being created by a function, i would have guessed that all buttons that were created are named "btn" since thats the only name i have given them.

How could i address all (or one specific) buttons, out of a group of created-by-function buttons? Or to put it simply, what name do all of those buttons have? Do they share the name "btn"? Are they assigned a hidden ID?

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3
  • Answer possibly related to this, im not sure: stackoverflow.com/questions/42599924/… Commented May 15, 2018 at 7:00
  • RandomColor is set to the command of your buttons, it not being called when you create them, it is called when the button is clicked. Commented May 15, 2018 at 7:50
  • Yes, that was my idea - i wanted to make a small game out of this later where specific colors had different actions or something like that. Or just get a flashy little disco-dancefloor :) Commented May 15, 2018 at 8:42

2 Answers 2

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1

The reason behind your problem:

The problem is that when this line is executed: btn = Button(command =lambda:[RandomColor()]) by the end of the loop, you get a reference only to the last button which is created. You loose reference to other buttons.

Solution:

You can overcome this problem if you rely on winfo_children().

You have to do 2 steps to fix your issue:

First of all, change: btn = Button(command =lambda:[RandomColor()]) to btn = Button(window, command=lambda:[RandomColor()]). That simply means we attach each created button to a parent widget called window.

Then all that you need to change is RandomColor() function body as follows:

def RandomColor():       
    for child in window.winfo_children():
        child.configure(bg=color[randint(0,6)])

Demo:

enter image description here

This solves your problem but your code is not clean. You can ask for suggestions to improve your code on Code Review website.

EDIT:

Here is a solution for the scenario you described in the comment.

Note that I had to create code from scratch, cleaner one (I know you started only today, so I am not blaming you). In this code, I keep reference for every button I create:

import tkinter as tk
import random


class ChangeBottomRightColor(tk.Frame):

   def __init__(self, master):
       self.master = master
       tk.Frame.__init__(self, self.master)
       self.__colors = ["red","blue","green","yellow","black","purple","orange"]
       self.configure_gui()
       self.create_widgets()

   def configure_gui(self):
       pass

   def create_widgets(self):
       self.create_buttons()

   def create_buttons(self):
       self.buttons = {}
       c = 0
       for i in range(4):
           for j in range(4):              
               self.buttons['button{}'.format(c)] = tk.Button(self.master)
               self.buttons['button{}'.format(c)].grid(row=i, column=j)
               self.buttons['button{}'.format(c)].config(width=3, height=3)
               self.buttons['button{}'.format(c)].config(command=self.change_bottom_right_button_color)
               c += 1

   def get_random_color(self):
       return random.choice(self.__colors)

   def change_bottom_right_button_color(self):       
       self.buttons['button{}'.format(15)].config(bg=self.get_random_color())       



if __name__ == '__main__':
   root = tk.Tk()
   main_app =  ChangeBottomRightColor(root)
   root.mainloop()

Demo:

enter image description here

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7 Comments

I am aware that my code doesnt look good yet - im only a few hours into python, but still - thanks for the easy solution, may i ask what i would have to change if, lets say, i would only want the bottom-right button to change color upon clicking on any button? my initial question was rather generally how all of those generated buttons are "unique" as i did not generate them by, lets say, manually naming name btn1, btn2, btn3 and so on
Sorry, I do not understand your question because you did what you asked for yourself (the code in your question). Otherwise, please clarify me
with your solution, i can now recolor all buttons when clicking any button - but part of my question was "How could i address all (or one specific) buttons" and i still dont know how i can configure one specific button - lets imagine this scenario: i want to change the color of one button - lets say, the button in the bottom-right corner, when clicking on any other button. how would i do this? all i did in my original code was recolor the button i clicked, not recolor another button
Do you want a solution for the specific scenario you described?
If you have one sure, no problem if thats too much of a hastle
|
1

Let try

btn = []
for i in range(16):
    btn.append(Button(window))

it will create an array of button. So you can access by btn[i].configure(command=lambda:[RandomColor()]) or something else.

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1 Comment

Where would i put this? Replace the btn = Button() part with this one?

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