How to get a string from a tkinter filedialog in Python 3?

To interact with the filesystem in a tkinter application, you can use the tkinter.filedialog module. It provides various built-in functions to create file selection dialogs, with askopenfilename() being the most commonly used to get a file path as a string.

Basic File Selection Dialog

The simplest way to get a file path string is using askopenfilename() −

from tkinter import *
from tkinter import filedialog

# Create an instance of tkinter window
win = Tk()
win.geometry("700x300")

# Create a dialog to select a file
file_path = filedialog.askopenfilename(
    initialdir="/", 
    title="Select a file",
    filetypes=(("Text files", "*.txt"), ("All files", "*.*"))
)

# Display the selected file path
if file_path:
    label = Label(win, text=f"Selected file: {file_path}", font='Courier 11 bold')
    label.pack(pady=20)
else:
    label = Label(win, text="No file selected", font='Courier 11 bold')
    label.pack(pady=20)

win.mainloop()

Interactive File Selection with Button

A more user-friendly approach uses a button to trigger the file dialog −

from tkinter import *
from tkinter import filedialog

def select_file():
    file_path = filedialog.askopenfilename(
        initialdir="/",
        title="Select a file",
        filetypes=(("Python files", "*.py"), ("Text files", "*.txt"), ("All files", "*.*"))
    )
    
    if file_path:
        result_label.config(text=f"Selected: {file_path}")
        # Extract just the filename from full path
        filename = file_path.split('/')[-1]  # For Unix/Mac
        # filename = file_path.split('\')[-1]  # For Windows
        filename_label.config(text=f"Filename: {filename}")
    else:
        result_label.config(text="No file selected")
        filename_label.config(text="")

# Create main window
root = Tk()
root.title("File Dialog Example")
root.geometry("600x200")

# Create button to open file dialog
select_button = Button(root, text="Select File", command=select_file, font='Arial 12 bold')
select_button.pack(pady=20)

# Labels to display results
result_label = Label(root, text="No file selected yet", wraplength=500, font='Courier 10')
result_label.pack(pady=10)

filename_label = Label(root, text="", font='Courier 10 bold')
filename_label.pack(pady=5)

root.mainloop()

Different File Dialog Types

The filedialog module provides several functions for different purposes −

from tkinter import *
from tkinter import filedialog

root = Tk()
root.withdraw()  # Hide the main window

# Open single file
single_file = filedialog.askopenfilename(title="Select one file")
print(f"Single file: {single_file}")

# Open multiple files
multiple_files = filedialog.askopenfilenames(title="Select multiple files")
print(f"Multiple files: {multiple_files}")

# Save file dialog
save_file = filedialog.asksaveasfilename(
    defaultextension=".txt",
    filetypes=[("Text files", "*.txt"), ("All files", "*.*")]
)
print(f"Save as: {save_file}")

# Select directory
directory = filedialog.askdirectory(title="Select a directory")
print(f"Directory: {directory}")

root.destroy()

Single file: /path/to/selected/file.txt
Multiple files: ('/path/to/file1.txt', '/path/to/file2.py')
Save as: /path/to/new_file.txt
Directory: /path/to/selected/directory

Common Parameters

Conclusion

Use filedialog.askopenfilename() to get a file path as a string. For better user experience, trigger the dialog with a button and handle the case when no file is selected. The function returns an empty string if the user cancels the dialog.