ContentSwitcher

A widget for containing and switching display between multiple child widgets.

• Focusable
• Container

Example

The example below uses a ContentSwitcher in combination with two Buttons to create a simple tabbed view. Note how each Button has an ID set, and how each child of the ContentSwitcher has a corresponding ID; then a Button.Clicked handler is used to set ContentSwitcher.current to switch between the different views.

Outputcontent_switcher.pycontent_switcher.css

from textual.app import App, ComposeResult
from textual.containers import Horizontal
from textual.widgets import Button, ContentSwitcher, DataTable, Markdown

MARKDOWN_EXAMPLE = """# Three Flavours Cornetto

The Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy is an anthology series of British
comedic genre films directed by Edgar Wright.

## Shaun of the Dead

| Flavour | UK Release Date | Director |
| -- | -- | -- |
| Strawberry | 2004-04-09 | Edgar Wright |

## Hot Fuzz

| Flavour | UK Release Date | Director |
| -- | -- | -- |
| Classico | 2007-02-17 | Edgar Wright |

## The World's End

| Flavour | UK Release Date | Director |
| -- | -- | -- |
| Mint | 2013-07-19 | Edgar Wright |
"""


class ContentSwitcherApp(App[None]):
    CSS_PATH = "content_switcher.css"

    def compose(self) -> ComposeResult:
        with Horizontal(id="buttons"):  # (1)!
            yield Button("DataTable", id="data-table")  # (2)!
            yield Button("Markdown", id="markdown")  # (3)!

        with ContentSwitcher(initial="data-table"):  # (4)!
            yield DataTable(id="data-table")
            yield Markdown(MARKDOWN_EXAMPLE, id="markdown")

    def on_button_pressed(self, event: Button.Pressed) -> None:
        self.query_one(ContentSwitcher).current = event.button.id  # (5)!

    def on_mount(self) -> None:
        table = self.query_one(DataTable)
        table.add_columns("Book", "Year")
        table.add_rows(
            [
                (title.ljust(35), year)
                for title, year in (
                    ("Dune", 1965),
                    ("Dune Messiah", 1969),
                    ("Children of Dune", 1976),
                    ("God Emperor of Dune", 1981),
                    ("Heretics of Dune", 1984),
                    ("Chapterhouse: Dune", 1985),
                )
            ]
        )


if __name__ == "__main__":
    ContentSwitcherApp().run()

1. A Horizontal to hold the buttons, each with a unique ID.
2. This button will select the DataTable in the ContentSwitcher.
3. This button will select the Markdown in the ContentSwitcher.
4. Note that the intial visible content is set by its ID, see below.
5. When a button is pressed, its ID is used to switch to a different widget in the ContentSwitcher. Remember that IDs are unique within parent, so the buttons and the widgets in the ContentSwitcher can share IDs.

Screen {
    align: center middle;
}

#buttons {
    margin-top: 1;
    height: 3;
    width: auto;
}

ContentSwitcher {
    background: $panel;
    border: round $primary;
    width: 90%;
    height: 80%;
}

DataTable {
    background: $panel;
}

MarkdownH2 {
    background: $primary;
    color: yellow;
    border: none;
    padding: 0;
}

When the user presses the "Markdown" button the view is switched:

Reactive Attributes

Name	Type	Default	Description
current	str | None	None	The ID of the currently-visible child. None means nothing is visible.

See Also

• ContentSwitcher code reference