QPlainTextEdit — PyQt Documentation v6.9.0 (original) (raw)

PyQt6.QtWidgets.QPlainTextEdit

Inherits from QAbstractScrollArea.

Description¶

The QPlainTextEdit class provides a widget that is used to edit and display plain text.

Introduction and Concepts¶

QPlainTextEdit is an advanced viewer/editor supporting plain text. It is optimized to handle large documents and to respond quickly to user input.

QPlainText uses very much the same technology and concepts as QTextEdit, but is optimized for plain text handling.

QPlainTextEdit works on paragraphs and characters. A paragraph is a formatted string which is word-wrapped to fit into the width of the widget. By default when reading plain text, one newline signifies a paragraph. A document consists of zero or more paragraphs. Paragraphs are separated by hard line breaks. Each character within a paragraph has its own attributes, for example, font and color.

The shape of the mouse cursor on a QPlainTextEdit is IBeamCursor by default. It can be changed through the viewport()’s cursor property.

Using QPlainTextEdit as a Display Widget¶

The text is set or replaced using setPlainText() which deletes the existing text and replaces it with the text passed to setPlainText().

Text can be inserted using the QTextCursor class or using the convenience functions insertPlainText(), appendPlainText() or paste().

By default, the text edit wraps words at whitespace to fit within the text edit widget. The setLineWrapMode() function is used to specify the kind of line wrap you want, WidgetWidth or NoWrap if you don’t want any wrapping. If you use word wrap to the widget’s width WidgetWidth, you can specify whether to break on whitespace or anywhere with setWordWrapMode().

The find() function can be used to find and select a given string within the text.

If you want to limit the total number of paragraphs in a QPlainTextEdit, as it is for example useful in a log viewer, then you can use the maximumBlockCount() property. The combination of setMaximumBlockCount() and appendPlainText() turns QPlainTextEdit into an efficient viewer for log text. The scrolling can be reduced with the centerOnScroll() property, making the log viewer even faster. Text can be formatted in a limited way, either using a syntax highlighter (see below), or by appending html-formatted text with appendHtml(). While QPlainTextEdit does not support complex rich text rendering with tables and floats, it does support limited paragraph-based formatting that you may need in a log viewer.

Read-only Key Bindings¶

When QPlainTextEdit is used read-only the key bindings are limited to navigation, and text may only be selected with the mouse:

Using QPlainTextEdit as an Editor¶

All the information about using QPlainTextEdit as a display widget also applies here.

Selection of text is handled by the QTextCursor class, which provides functionality for creating selections, retrieving the text contents or deleting selections. You can retrieve the object that corresponds with the user-visible cursor using the textCursor() method. If you want to set a selection in QPlainTextEdit just create one on a QTextCursor object and then make that cursor the visible cursor using setCursor(). The selection can be copied to the clipboard with copy(), or cut to the clipboard with cut(). The entire text can be selected using selectAll().

QPlainTextEdit holds a QTextDocument object which can be retrieved using the document() method. You can also set your own document object using setDocument(). QTextDocument emits a textChanged signal if the text changes and it also provides a isModified() function which will return true if the text has been modified since it was either loaded or since the last call to setModified with false as argument. In addition it provides methods for undo and redo.

Syntax Highlighting¶

Just like QTextEdit, QPlainTextEdit works together with QSyntaxHighlighter.

Editing Key Bindings¶

The list of key bindings which are implemented for editing:

To select (mark) text hold down the Shift key whilst pressing one of the movement keystrokes, for example, Shift+Right Arrow will select the character to the right, and Shift+Ctrl+Right Arrow will select the word to the right, etc.

Differences to QTextEdit¶

QPlainTextEdit is a thin class, implemented by using most of the technology that is behind QTextEdit and QTextDocument. Its performance benefits over QTextEdit stem mostly from using a different and simplified text layout called QPlainTextDocumentLayout on the text document (see setDocumentLayout()). The plain text document layout does not support tables nor embedded frames, and replaces a pixel-exact height calculation with a line-by-line respectively paragraph-by-paragraph scrolling approach. This makes it possible to handle significantly larger documents, and still resize the editor with line wrap enabled in real time. It also makes for a fast log viewer (see setMaximumBlockCount()).

{Syntax Highlighter Example}, {Rich Text Processing}

Enums¶

LineWrapMode

Methods¶

__init__(parent: QWidget = None)

Constructs an empty QPlainTextEdit with parent parent.

__init__(Optional[str], parent: QWidget = None)

Constructs a QPlainTextEdit with parent parent. The text edit will display the plain text text.

anchorAt(QPoint) → str

Returns the reference of the anchor at position pos, or an empty string if no anchor exists at that point.

appendHtml(Optional[str])

Appends a new paragraph with html to the end of the text edit.

appendPlainText()

appendPlainText(Optional[str])

Appends a new paragraph with text to the end of the text edit.

backgroundVisible() → bool

blockBoundingGeometry(QTextBlock) → QRectF

Returns the bounding rectangle of the text block in content coordinates. Translate the rectangle with the contentOffset() to get visual coordinates on the viewport.

blockBoundingRect(QTextBlock) → QRectF

Returns the bounding rectangle of the text block in the block’s own coordinates.

blockCount() → int

TODO

canInsertFromMimeData(QMimeData) → bool

This function returns true if the contents of the MIME data object, specified by source, can be decoded and inserted into the document. It is called for example when during a drag operation the mouse enters this widget and it is necessary to determine whether it is possible to accept the drag.

canPaste() → bool

Returns whether text can be pasted from the clipboard into the textedit.

centerCursor()

Scrolls the document in order to center the cursor vertically.

centerOnScroll() → bool

See also

setCenterOnScroll().

changeEvent(QEvent)

TODO

clear()

Deletes all the text in the text edit.

Notes:

• The undo/redo history is also cleared.
• currentCharFormat() is reset, unless textCursor() is already at the beginning of the document.

See also

cut(), setPlainText().

contentOffset() → QPointF

Returns the content’s origin in viewport coordinates.

The origin of the content of a plain text edit is always the top left corner of the first visible text block. The content offset is different from (0,0) when the text has been scrolled horizontally, or when the first visible block has been scrolled partially off the screen, i.e. the visible text does not start with the first line of the first visible block, or when the first visible block is the very first block and the editor displays a margin.

See also

firstVisibleBlock(), horizontalScrollBar(), verticalScrollBar().

TODO

copy()

Copies any selected text to the clipboard.

createMimeDataFromSelection() → QMimeData

This function returns a new MIME data object to represent the contents of the text edit’s current selection. It is called when the selection needs to be encapsulated into a new QMimeData object; for example, when a drag and drop operation is started, or when data is copied to the clipboard.

If you reimplement this function, note that the ownership of the returned QMimeData object is passed to the caller. The selection can be retrieved by using the textCursor() function.

createStandardContextMenu() → QMenu

This function creates the standard context menu which is shown when the user clicks on the text edit with the right mouse button. It is called from the default contextMenuEvent() handler. The popup menu’s ownership is transferred to the caller.

We recommend that you use the createStandardContextMenu(QPoint) version instead which will enable the actions that are sensitive to where the user clicked.

createStandardContextMenu(QPoint) → QMenu

This function creates the standard context menu which is shown when the user clicks on the text edit with the right mouse button. It is called from the default contextMenuEvent() handler and it takes the position in document coordinates where the mouse click was. This can enable actions that are sensitive to the position where the user clicked. The popup menu’s ownership is transferred to the caller.

currentCharFormat() → QTextCharFormat

Returns the char format that is used when inserting new text.

cursorForPosition(QPoint) → QTextCursor

returns a QTextCursor at position pos (in viewport coordinates).

cursorRect() → QRect

returns a rectangle (in viewport coordinates) that includes the cursor of the text edit.

cursorRect(QTextCursor) → QRect

returns a rectangle (in viewport coordinates) that includes the cursor.

cursorWidth() → int

See also

setCursorWidth().

cut()

Copies the selected text to the clipboard and deletes it from the text edit.

If there is no selected text nothing happens.

See also

copy(), paste().

document() → QTextDocument

Returns a pointer to the underlying document.

documentTitle() → str

See also

setDocumentTitle().

dragEnterEvent(QDragEnterEvent)

TODO

dragLeaveEvent(QDragLeaveEvent)

TODO

dragMoveEvent(QDragMoveEvent)

TODO

dropEvent(QDropEvent)

TODO

ensureCursorVisible()

Ensures that the cursor is visible by scrolling the text edit if necessary.

event(QEvent) → bool

TODO

Returns previously set extra selections.

See also

setExtraSelections().

find(Optional[str], options: FindFlag = QTextDocument.FindFlags()) → bool

Finds the next occurrence of the string, exp, using the given options. Returns true if exp was found and changes the cursor to select the match; otherwise returns false.

find(QRegularExpression, options: FindFlag = QTextDocument.FindFlags()) → bool

This is an overloaded function.

Finds the next occurrence, matching the regular expression, exp, using the given options.

Returns true if a match was found and changes the cursor to select the match; otherwise returns false.

Warning: For historical reasons, the case sensitivity option set on exp is ignored. Instead, the options are used to determine if the search is case sensitive or not.

firstVisibleBlock() → QTextBlock

Returns the first visible block.

See also

blockBoundingRect().

focusInEvent(QFocusEvent)

TODO

focusNextPrevChild(bool) → bool

TODO

focusOutEvent(QFocusEvent)

TODO

getPaintContext() → PaintContext

Returns the paint context for the viewport(), useful only when reimplementing paintEvent().

inputMethodEvent(QInputMethodEvent)

TODO

inputMethodQuery(InputMethodQuery) → Any

TODO

inputMethodQuery(InputMethodQuery, Any) → Any

TODO

insertFromMimeData(QMimeData)

This function inserts the contents of the MIME data object, specified by source, into the text edit at the current cursor position. It is called whenever text is inserted as the result of a clipboard paste operation, or when the text edit accepts data from a drag and drop operation.

insertPlainText(Optional[str])

Convenience slot that inserts text at the current cursor position.

It is equivalent to

edit->textCursor().insertText(text);

isReadOnly() → bool

TODO

isUndoRedoEnabled() → bool

TODO

keyPressEvent(QKeyEvent)

TODO

keyReleaseEvent(QKeyEvent)

TODO

lineWrapMode() → LineWrapMode

See also

setLineWrapMode().

loadResource(int, QUrl) → Any

Loads the resource specified by the given type and name.

This function is an extension of loadResource().

maximumBlockCount() → int

mergeCurrentCharFormat(QTextCharFormat)

Merges the properties specified in modifier into the current character format by calling mergeCharFormat() on the editor’s cursor. If the editor has a selection then the properties of modifier are directly applied to the selection.

mouseDoubleClickEvent(QMouseEvent)

TODO

mouseMoveEvent(QMouseEvent)

TODO

mousePressEvent(QMouseEvent)

TODO

mouseReleaseEvent(QMouseEvent)

TODO

moveCursor(MoveOperation, mode: MoveMode = MoveAnchor)

Moves the cursor by performing the given operation.

If mode is KeepAnchor, the cursor selects the text it moves over. This is the same effect that the user achieves when they hold down the Shift key and move the cursor with the cursor keys.

overwriteMode() → bool

See also

setOverwriteMode().

paintEvent(QPaintEvent)

TODO

paste()

Pastes the text from the clipboard into the text edit at the current cursor position.

If there is no text in the clipboard nothing happens.

To change the behavior of this function, i.e. to modify what QPlainTextEdit can paste and how it is being pasted, reimplement the virtual canInsertFromMimeData() and insertFromMimeData() functions.

placeholderText() → str

See also

setPlaceholderText().

print(QPagedPaintDevice)

Convenience function to print the text edit’s document to the given printer. This is equivalent to calling the print method on the document directly except that this function also supports Selection as print range.

redo()

Redoes the last operation.

If there is no operation to redo, i.e. there is no redo step in the undo/redo history, nothing happens.

resizeEvent(QResizeEvent)

TODO

scrollContentsBy(int, int)

TODO

selectAll()

Selects all text.

See also

copy(), cut(), textCursor().

setBackgroundVisible(bool)

See also

backgroundVisible().

setCenterOnScroll(bool)

See also

centerOnScroll().

setCurrentCharFormat(QTextCharFormat)

Sets the char format that is be used when inserting new text to format by calling setCharFormat() on the editor’s cursor. If the editor has a selection then the char format is directly applied to the selection.

See also

currentCharFormat().

setCursorWidth(int)

setDocument(QTextDocument)

Makes document the new document of the text editor.

The parent QObject of the provided document remains the owner of the object. If the current document is a child of the text editor, then it is deleted.

The document must have a document layout that inherits QPlainTextDocumentLayout (see setDocumentLayout()).

setDocumentTitle(Optional[str])

See also

documentTitle().

This function allows temporarily marking certain regions in the document with a given color, specified as selections. This can be useful for example in a programming editor to mark a whole line of text with a given background color to indicate the existence of a breakpoint.

setLineWrapMode(LineWrapMode)

setMaximumBlockCount(int)

See also

maximumBlockCount().

setOverwriteMode(bool)

See also

overwriteMode().

setPlaceholderText(Optional[str])

See also

placeholderText().

setPlainText(Optional[str])

Changes the text of the text edit to the string text. Any previous text is removed.

text is interpreted as plain text.

Notes:

• The undo/redo history is also cleared.
• currentCharFormat() is reset, unless textCursor() is already at the beginning of the document.

setReadOnly(bool)

setTabChangesFocus(bool)

See also

tabChangesFocus().

setTabStopDistance(float)

See also

tabStopDistance().

setTextCursor(QTextCursor)

Sets the visible cursor.

setTextInteractionFlags(TextInteractionFlag)

setUndoRedoEnabled(bool)

See also

isUndoRedoEnabled().

setWordWrapMode(WrapMode)

showEvent(QShowEvent)

TODO

tabChangesFocus() → bool

See also

setTabChangesFocus().

tabStopDistance() → float

See also

setTabStopDistance().

textCursor() → QTextCursor

Returns a copy of the QTextCursor that represents the currently visible cursor. Note that changes on the returned cursor do not affect QPlainTextEdit’s cursor; use setTextCursor() to update the visible cursor.

See also

setTextCursor().

textInteractionFlags() → TextInteractionFlag

timerEvent(QTimerEvent)

TODO

toPlainText() → str

Returns the text of the text edit as plain text.

undo()

Undoes the last operation.

If there is no operation to undo, i.e. there is no undo step in the undo/redo history, nothing happens.

wheelEvent(QWheelEvent)

TODO

wordWrapMode() → WrapMode

See also

setWordWrapMode().

zoomIn(range: int = 1)

Zooms in on the text by making the base font size range points larger and recalculating all font sizes to be the new size. This does not change the size of any images.

zoomOut(range: int = 1)

Zooms out on the text by making the base font size range points smaller and recalculating all font sizes to be the new size. This does not change the size of any images.

Signals¶

blockCountChanged(int)

This signal is emitted whenever the block count changes. The new block count is passed in newBlockCount.

copyAvailable(bool)

This signal is emitted when text is selected or de-selected in the text edit.

When text is selected this signal will be emitted with yes set to true. If no text has been selected or if the selected text is de-selected this signal is emitted with yes set to false.

If yes is true then copy() can be used to copy the selection to the clipboard. If yes is false then copy() does nothing.

See also

selectionChanged.

cursorPositionChanged()

This signal is emitted whenever the position of the cursor changed.

modificationChanged(bool)

This signal is emitted whenever the content of the document changes in a way that affects the modification state. If changed is true, the document has been modified; otherwise it is false.

For example, calling setModified(false) on a document and then inserting text causes the signal to get emitted. If you undo that operation, causing the document to return to its original unmodified state, the signal will get emitted again.

redoAvailable(bool)

This signal is emitted whenever redo operations become available (available is true) or unavailable (available is false).

selectionChanged()

This signal is emitted whenever the selection changes.

textChanged()

This signal is emitted whenever the document’s content changes; for example, when text is inserted or deleted, or when formatting is applied.

undoAvailable(bool)

This signal is emitted whenever undo operations become available (available is true) or unavailable (available is false).

updateRequest(QRect, int)

This signal is emitted when the text document needs an update of the specified rect. If the text is scrolled, rect will cover the entire viewport area. If the text is scrolled vertically, dy carries the amount of pixels the viewport was scrolled.

The purpose of the signal is to support extra widgets in plain text edit subclasses that e.g. show line numbers, breakpoints, or other extra information.