Getting the Cursor position in Tkinter Entry widget

In Tkinter Entry widgets, each character position is indexed starting from 0. You can retrieve the current cursor position using the index() method with the INSERT constant, which represents the insertion cursor location.

Syntax

entry.index(INSERT)

Where INSERT is a predefined constant that refers to the current cursor position in the Entry widget.

Example

Here's a complete example that demonstrates how to get the cursor position in a Tkinter Entry widget ?

# Import required libraries
from tkinter import *
from tkinter import ttk

# Create an instance of tkinter window
win = Tk()
win.geometry("700x350")
win.title("Get the Cursor Position")

# Create an instance of style class
style = ttk.Style(win)

# Function to retrieve the current position of the cursor
def get_current_info():
    cursor_pos = entry.index(INSERT)
    print("The cursor is at:", cursor_pos)
    result_label.config(text=f"Cursor position: {cursor_pos}")

# Create an entry widget
entry = ttk.Entry(win, width=18)
entry.pack(pady=30)

# Create a button widget
button = ttk.Button(win, text="Get Info", command=get_current_info)
button.pack(pady=10)

# Label to display cursor position
result_label = ttk.Label(win, text="Click 'Get Info' to see cursor position")
result_label.pack(pady=10)

win.mainloop()

How It Works

The index(INSERT) method returns an integer representing the character position where the cursor is currently located. Position 0 is before the first character, position 1 is between the first and second character, and so on.

Key Points

• Cursor positions are zero-indexed
• INSERT is a built-in constant representing the insertion point
• The method returns an integer value
• Position updates as the user moves the cursor with arrow keys or mouse clicks

Output

Running the above code will display a window with an Entry widget and a button. Type some text like "Hello World!" in the Entry widget, position your cursor anywhere in the text, and click the "Get Info" button ?

The cursor is at: 7
Cursor position: 7

Conclusion

Use entry.index(INSERT) to get the current cursor position in Tkinter Entry widgets. This is useful for text manipulation, validation, or creating custom text editing features.