Input¶

A single-line text input widget.

Focusable
Container

Examples¶

A Simple Example¶

The example below shows how you might create a simple form using two Input widgets.

Outputinput.py

from textual.app import App, ComposeResult
from textual.widgets import Input


class InputApp(App):
    def compose(self) -> ComposeResult:
        yield Input(placeholder="First Name")
        yield Input(placeholder="Last Name")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = InputApp()
    app.run()

Input Types¶

The Input widget supports a type parameter which will prevent the user from typing invalid characters. You can set type to any of the following values:

input.type	Description
`"integer"`	Restricts input to integers.
`"number"`	Restricts input to a floating point number.
`"text"`	Allow all text (no restrictions).

Outputinput_types.py

from textual.app import App, ComposeResult
from textual.widgets import Input


class InputApp(App):
    def compose(self) -> ComposeResult:
        yield Input(placeholder="An integer", type="integer")
        yield Input(placeholder="A number", type="number")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = InputApp()
    app.run()

If you set type to something other than "text", then the Input will apply the appropriate validator.

Restricting Input¶

You can limit input to particular characters by supplying the restrict parameter, which should be a regular expression. The Input widget will prevent the addition of any characters that would cause the regex to no longer match. For instance, if you wanted to limit characters to binary you could set restrict=r"[01]*".

Note

The restrict regular expression is applied to the full value and not just to the new character.

Maximum Length¶

You can limit the length of the input by setting max_length to a value greater than zero. This will prevent the user from typing any more characters when the maximum has been reached.

Validating Input¶

You can supply one or more validators to the Input widget to validate the value.

All the supplied validators will run when the value changes, the Input is submitted, or focus moves out of the Input. The values "changed", "submitted", and "blur", can be passed as an iterable to the Input parameter validate_on to request that validation occur only on the respective mesages. (See InputValidationOn and Input.validate_on.) For example, the code below creates an Input widget that only gets validated when the value is submitted explicitly:

input = Input(validate_on=["submitted"])

Validation is considered to have failed if any of the validators fail.

You can check whether the validation succeeded or failed inside an Input.Changed or Input.Submitted handler by looking at the validation_result attribute on these events.

In the example below, we show how to combine multiple validators and update the UI to tell the user why validation failed. Click the tabs to see the output for validation failures and successes.

input_validation.pyValidation FailureValidation Success

from textual import on
from textual.app import App, ComposeResult
from textual.validation import Function, Number, ValidationResult, Validator
from textual.widgets import Input, Label, Pretty


class InputApp(App):
    # (6)!
    CSS = """
    Input.-valid {
        border: tall $success 60%;
    }
    Input.-valid:focus {
        border: tall $success;
    }
    Input {
        margin: 1 1;
    }
    Label {
        margin: 1 2;
    }
    Pretty {
        margin: 1 2;
    }
    """

    def compose(self) -> ComposeResult:
        yield Label("Enter an even number between 1 and 100 that is also a palindrome.")
        yield Input(
            placeholder="Enter a number...",
            validators=[
                Number(minimum=1, maximum=100),  # (1)!
                Function(is_even, "Value is not even."),  # (2)!
                Palindrome(),  # (3)!
            ],
        )
        yield Pretty([])

    @on(Input.Changed)
    def show_invalid_reasons(self, event: Input.Changed) -> None:
        # Updating the UI to show the reasons why validation failed
        if not event.validation_result.is_valid:  # (4)!
            self.query_one(Pretty).update(event.validation_result.failure_descriptions)
        else:
            self.query_one(Pretty).update([])


def is_even(value: str) -> bool:
    try:
        return int(value) % 2 == 0
    except ValueError:
        return False


# A custom validator
class Palindrome(Validator):  # (5)!
    def validate(self, value: str) -> ValidationResult:
        """Check a string is equal to its reverse."""
        if self.is_palindrome(value):
            return self.success()
        else:
            return self.failure("That's not a palindrome :/")

    @staticmethod
    def is_palindrome(value: str) -> bool:
        return value == value[::-1]


app = InputApp()

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

Number is a built-in Validator. It checks that the value in the Input is a valid number, and optionally can check that it falls within a range.
Function lets you quickly define custom validation constraints. In this case, we check the value in the Input is even.
Palindrome is a custom Validator defined below.
The Input.Changed event has a validation_result attribute which contains information about the validation that occurred when the value changed.
Here's how we can implement a custom validator which checks if a string is a palindrome. Note how the description passed into self.failure corresponds to the message seen on UI.
Textual offers default styling for the -invalid CSS class (a red border), which is automatically applied to Input when validation fails. We can also provide custom styling for the -valid class, as seen here. In this case, we add a green border around the Input to indicate successful validation.

Textual offers several built-in validators for common requirements, but you can easily roll your own by extending Validator, as seen for Palindrome in the example above.

Validate Empty¶

If you set valid_empty=True then empty values will bypass any validators, and empty values will be considered valid.

Reactive Attributes¶

Name	Type	Default	Description
`cursor_blink`	`bool`	`True`	True if cursor blinking is enabled.
`value`	`str`	`""`	The value currently in the text input.
`cursor_position`	`int`	`0`	The index of the cursor in the value string.
`placeholder`	`str`	`""`	The dimmed placeholder text to display when the input is empty.
`password`	`bool`	`False`	True if the input should be masked.
`restrict`	`str`	`None`	Optional regular expression to restrict input.
`type`	`str`	`"text"`	The type of the input.
`max_length`	`int`	`None`	Maximum length of the input value.
`valid_empty`	`bool`	`False`	Allow empty values to bypass validation.

Bindings¶

The input widget defines the following bindings:

Key(s)	Description
left	Move the cursor left.
shift+left	Move cursor left and select.
ctrl+left	Move the cursor one word to the left.
right	Move the cursor right or accept the completion suggestion.
ctrl+shift+left	Move cursor left a word and select.
shift+right	Move cursor right and select.
ctrl+right	Move the cursor one word to the right.
backspace	Delete the character to the left of the cursor.
ctrl+shift+right	Move cursor right a word and select.
home,ctrl+a	Go to the beginning of the input.
end,ctrl+e	Go to the end of the input.
shift+home	Select up to the input start.
shift+end	Select up to the input end.
delete,ctrl+d	Delete the character to the right of the cursor.
enter	Submit the current value of the input.
ctrl+w	Delete the word to the left of the cursor.
ctrl+u	Delete everything to the left of the cursor.
ctrl+f	Delete the word to the right of the cursor.
ctrl+k	Delete everything to the right of the cursor.
ctrl+x	Cut selected text.
ctrl+c	Copy selected text.
ctrl+v	Paste text from the clipboard.

Component Classes¶

The input widget provides the following component classes:

Class	Description
`input--cursor`	Target the cursor.
`input--placeholder`	Target the placeholder text (when it exists).
`input--suggestion`	Target the auto-completion suggestion (when it exists).
`input--selection`	Target the selected text.

Additional Notes¶

The spacing around the text content is due to border. To remove it, set border: none; in your CSS.

Bases: ScrollView

A text input widget.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
`value`	`str \| None`	An optional default value for the input.	`None`
`placeholder`	`str`	Optional placeholder text for the input.	`''`
`highlighter`	`Highlighter \| None`	An optional highlighter for the input.	`None`
`password`	`bool`	Flag to say if the field should obfuscate its content.	`False`
`restrict`	`str \| None`	A regex to restrict character inputs.	`None`
`type`	`InputType`	The type of the input.	`'text'`
`max_length`	`int`	The maximum length of the input, or 0 for no maximum length.	`0`
`suggester`	`Suggester \| None`	`Suggester` associated with this input instance.	`None`
`validators`	`Validator \| Iterable[Validator] \| None`	An iterable of validators that the Input value will be checked against.	`None`
`validate_on`	`Iterable[InputValidationOn] \| None`	Zero or more of the values "blur", "changed", and "submitted", which determine when to do input validation. The default is to do validation for all messages.	`None`
`valid_empty`	`bool`	Empty values are valid.	`False`
`select_on_focus`	`bool`	Whether to select all text on focus.	`True`
`name`	`str \| None`	Optional name for the input widget.	`None`
`id`	`str \| None`	Optional ID for the widget.	`None`
`classes`	`str \| None`	Optional initial classes for the widget.	`None`
`disabled`	`bool`	Whether the input is disabled or not.	`False`
`tooltip`	`RenderableType \| None`	Optional tooltip.	`None`

BINDINGS `class-attribute` ¶

BINDINGS: list[BindingType] = [
    Binding(
        "left",
        "cursor_left",
        "Move cursor left",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "shift+left",
        "cursor_left(True)",
        "Move cursor left and select",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "ctrl+left",
        "cursor_left_word",
        "Move cursor left a word",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "ctrl+shift+left",
        "cursor_left_word(True)",
        "Move cursor left a word and select",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "right",
        "cursor_right",
        "Move cursor right or accept the completion suggestion",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "shift+right",
        "cursor_right(True)",
        "Move cursor right and select",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "ctrl+right",
        "cursor_right_word",
        "Move cursor right a word",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "ctrl+shift+right",
        "cursor_right_word(True)",
        "Move cursor right a word and select",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "backspace",
        "delete_left",
        "Delete character left",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "home,ctrl+a", "home", "Go to start", show=False
    ),
    Binding("end,ctrl+e", "end", "Go to end", show=False),
    Binding(
        "shift+home",
        "home(True)",
        "Select line start",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "shift+end",
        "end(True)",
        "Select line end",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "delete,ctrl+d",
        "delete_right",
        "Delete character right",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding("enter", "submit", "Submit", show=False),
    Binding(
        "ctrl+w",
        "delete_left_word",
        "Delete left to start of word",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "ctrl+u",
        "delete_left_all",
        "Delete all to the left",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "ctrl+f",
        "delete_right_word",
        "Delete right to start of word",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "ctrl+k",
        "delete_right_all",
        "Delete all to the right",
        show=False,
    ),
    Binding(
        "ctrl+x", "cut", "Cut selected text", show=False
    ),
    Binding(
        "ctrl+c", "copy", "Copy selected text", show=False
    ),
    Binding(
        "ctrl+v",
        "paste",
        "Paste text from the clipboard",
        show=False,
    ),
]

Key(s)	Description
left	Move the cursor left.
shift+left	Move cursor left and select.
ctrl+left	Move the cursor one word to the left.
right	Move the cursor right or accept the completion suggestion.
ctrl+shift+left	Move cursor left a word and select.
shift+right	Move cursor right and select.
ctrl+right	Move the cursor one word to the right.
backspace	Delete the character to the left of the cursor.
ctrl+shift+right	Move cursor right a word and select.
home,ctrl+a	Go to the beginning of the input.
end,ctrl+e	Go to the end of the input.
shift+home	Select up to the input start.
shift+end	Select up to the input end.
delete,ctrl+d	Delete the character to the right of the cursor.
enter	Submit the current value of the input.
ctrl+w	Delete the word to the left of the cursor.
ctrl+u	Delete everything to the left of the cursor.
ctrl+f	Delete the word to the right of the cursor.
ctrl+k	Delete everything to the right of the cursor.
ctrl+x	Cut selected text.
ctrl+c	Copy selected text.
ctrl+v	Paste text from the clipboard.

COMPONENT_CLASSES `class-attribute` ¶

COMPONENT_CLASSES: set[str] = {
    "input--cursor",
    "input--placeholder",
    "input--suggestion",
    "input--selection",
}

Class	Description
`input--cursor`	Target the cursor.
`input--placeholder`	Target the placeholder text (when it exists).
`input--suggestion`	Target the auto-completion suggestion (when it exists).
`input--selection`	Target the selected text.

content_width `property` ¶

content_width: int

The width of the content.

cursor_position `property` `writable` ¶

cursor_position: int

The current position of the cursor, corresponding to the end of the selection.

cursor_screen_offset `property` ¶

cursor_screen_offset: Offset

The offset of the cursor of this input in screen-space. (x, y)/(column, row)

is_valid `property` ¶

is_valid: bool

Check if the value has passed validation.

max_length `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

max_length = max_length

The maximum length of the input, in characters.

restrict `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

restrict = restrict

A regular expression to limit changes in value.

selected_text `property` ¶

selected_text: str

The text between the start and end points of the current selection.

selection `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

selection: Reactive[Selection] = reactive(
    Selection.cursor(0)
)

The currently selected range of text.

suggester `instance-attribute` ¶

suggester: Suggester | None = suggester

The suggester used to provide completions as the user types.

type `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

type = type

The type of the input.

valid_empty `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

valid_empty = var(False)

Empty values should pass validation.

validate_on `instance-attribute` ¶

validate_on: set[str] = (
    _POSSIBLE_VALIDATE_ON_VALUES & set(validate_on)
    if validate_on is not None
    else _POSSIBLE_VALIDATE_ON_VALUES
)

Set with event names to do input validation on.

Validation can only be performed on blur, on input changes and on input submission.

Example

This creates an Input widget that only gets validated when the value is submitted explicitly:

input = Input(validate_on=["submitted"])

Blurred `dataclass` ¶

Bases: Message

Posted when the widget is blurred (loses focus).

Can be handled using on_input_blurred in a subclass of Input or in a parent widget in the DOM.

control `property` ¶

control: Input

Alias for self.input.

input `instance-attribute` ¶

input: Input

The Input widget that was changed.

validation_result `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

validation_result: ValidationResult | None = None

The result of validating the value (formed by combining the results from each validator), or None if validation was not performed (for example when no validators are specified in the Inputs init)

value `instance-attribute` ¶

value: str

The value that the input was changed to.

Changed `dataclass` ¶

Bases: Message

Posted when the value changes.

Can be handled using on_input_changed in a subclass of Input or in a parent widget in the DOM.

control `property` ¶

control: Input

Alias for self.input.

input `instance-attribute` ¶

input: Input

The Input widget that was changed.

validation_result `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

validation_result: ValidationResult | None = None

The result of validating the value (formed by combining the results from each validator), or None if validation was not performed (for example when no validators are specified in the Inputs init)

value `instance-attribute` ¶

value: str

The value that the input was changed to.

Submitted `dataclass` ¶

Bases: Message

Posted when the enter key is pressed within an Input.

Can be handled using on_input_submitted in a subclass of Input or in a parent widget in the DOM.

control `property` ¶

control: Input

Alias for self.input.

input `instance-attribute` ¶

input: Input

The Input widget that is being submitted.

validation_result `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

validation_result: ValidationResult | None = None

The result of validating the value on submission, formed by combining the results for each validator. This value will be None if no validation was performed, which will be the case if no validators are supplied to the corresponding Input widget.

value `instance-attribute` ¶

value: str

The value of the Input being submitted.

action_copy ¶

action_copy()

Copy the current selection to the clipboard.

action_cursor_left ¶

action_cursor_left(select=False)

Move the cursor one position to the left.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
`select`	`bool`	If `True`, select the text to the left of the cursor.	`False`

action_cursor_left_word ¶

action_cursor_left_word(select=False)

Move the cursor left to the start of a word.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
`select`	`bool`	If `True`, select the text between the old and new cursor positions.	`False`

action_cursor_right ¶

action_cursor_right(select=False)

Accept an auto-completion or move the cursor one position to the right.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
`select`	`bool`	If `True`, select the text to the right of the cursor.	`False`

action_cursor_right_word ¶

action_cursor_right_word(select=False)

Move the cursor right to the start of a word.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
`select`	`bool`	If `True`, select the text between the old and new cursor positions.	`False`

action_cut ¶

action_cut()

Cut the current selection (copy to clipboard and remove from input).

action_delete_left ¶

action_delete_left()

Delete one character to the left of the current cursor position.

action_delete_left_all ¶

action_delete_left_all()

Delete all characters to the left of the cursor position.

action_delete_left_word ¶

action_delete_left_word()

Delete leftward of the cursor position to the start of a word.

action_delete_right ¶

action_delete_right()

Delete one character at the current cursor position.

action_delete_right_all ¶

action_delete_right_all()

Delete the current character and all characters to the right of the cursor position.

action_delete_right_word ¶

action_delete_right_word()

Delete the current character and all rightward to the start of the next word.

action_end ¶

action_end(select=False)

Move the cursor to the end of the input.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
`select`	`bool`	If `True`, select the text between the old and new cursor positions.	`False`

action_home ¶

action_home(select=False)

Move the cursor to the start of the input.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
`select`	`bool`	If `True`, select the text between the old and new cursor positions.	`False`

action_paste ¶

action_paste()

Paste from the local clipboard.

action_submit `async` ¶

action_submit()

Handle a submit action.

Normally triggered by the user pressing Enter. This may also run any validators.

check_consume_key ¶

check_consume_key(key, character)

Check if the widget may consume the given key.

As an input we are expecting to capture printable keys.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
`key`	`str`	A key identifier.	required
`character`	`str \| None`	A character associated with the key, or `None` if there isn't one.	required

Returns:

Type	Description
`bool`	`True` if the widget may capture the key in it's `Key` message, or `False` if it won't.

clear ¶

clear()

Clear the input.

delete ¶

delete(start, end)

Delete the text between the start and end locations.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
`start`	`int`	Start index to delete (inclusive).	required
`end`	`int`	End index to delete (inclusive).	required

delete_selection ¶

delete_selection()

Delete the current selection.

insert ¶

insert(text, index)

Insert text at the given index.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
`text`	`str`	Text to insert.	required
`index`	`int`	Index to insert the text at (inclusive).	required

insert_text_at_cursor ¶

insert_text_at_cursor(text)

Insert new text at the cursor, move the cursor to the end of the new text.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
`text`	`str`	New text to insert.	required

replace ¶

replace(text, start, end)

Replace the text between the start and end locations with the given text.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
`text`	`str`	Text to replace the existing text with.	required
`start`	`int`	Start index to replace (inclusive).	required
`end`	`int`	End index to replace (inclusive).	required

restricted ¶

restricted()

Called when a character has been restricted.

The default behavior is to play the system bell. You may want to override this method if you want to disable the bell or do something else entirely.

validate ¶

validate(value)

Run all the validators associated with this Input on the supplied value.

Runs all validators, combines the result into one. If any of the validators failed, the combined result will be a failure. If no validators are present, None will be returned. This also sets the -invalid CSS class on the Input if the validation fails, and sets the -valid CSS class on the Input if the validation succeeds.

Returns:

Type	Description
`ValidationResult \| None`	A ValidationResult indicating whether all validators succeeded or not. That is, if any validator fails, the result will be an unsuccessful validation.

Input¶

Examples¶

A Simple Example¶

Input Types¶

Restricting Input¶

Maximum Length¶

Validating Input¶

Validate Empty¶

Reactive Attributes¶

Messages¶

Bindings¶

Component Classes¶

Additional Notes¶

BINDINGS class-attribute ¶

COMPONENT_CLASSES class-attribute ¶

content_width property ¶

cursor_position property writable ¶

cursor_screen_offset property ¶

is_valid property ¶

max_length class-attribute instance-attribute ¶

restrict class-attribute instance-attribute ¶

selected_text property ¶

selection class-attribute instance-attribute ¶

suggester instance-attribute ¶

type class-attribute instance-attribute ¶

valid_empty class-attribute instance-attribute ¶

validate_on instance-attribute ¶

Blurred dataclass ¶

control property ¶

input instance-attribute ¶

validation_result class-attribute instance-attribute ¶

value instance-attribute ¶

Changed dataclass ¶

control property ¶

input instance-attribute ¶

validation_result class-attribute instance-attribute ¶

value instance-attribute ¶

Submitted dataclass ¶

control property ¶

input instance-attribute ¶

validation_result class-attribute instance-attribute ¶

value instance-attribute ¶

action_copy ¶

action_cursor_left ¶

action_cursor_left_word ¶

action_cursor_right ¶

action_cursor_right_word ¶

action_cut ¶

action_delete_left ¶

action_delete_left_all ¶

action_delete_left_word ¶

action_delete_right ¶

action_delete_right_all ¶

action_delete_right_word ¶

action_end ¶

action_home ¶

action_paste ¶

action_submit async ¶

check_consume_key ¶

clear ¶

delete ¶

delete_selection ¶

insert ¶

insert_text_at_cursor ¶

replace ¶

restricted ¶

validate ¶

BINDINGS `class-attribute` ¶

COMPONENT_CLASSES `class-attribute` ¶

content_width `property` ¶

cursor_position `property` `writable` ¶

cursor_screen_offset `property` ¶

is_valid `property` ¶

max_length `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

restrict `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

selected_text `property` ¶

selection `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

suggester `instance-attribute` ¶

type `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

valid_empty `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

validate_on `instance-attribute` ¶

Blurred `dataclass` ¶

control `property` ¶

input `instance-attribute` ¶

validation_result `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

value `instance-attribute` ¶

Changed `dataclass` ¶

control `property` ¶

input `instance-attribute` ¶

validation_result `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

value `instance-attribute` ¶

Submitted `dataclass` ¶

control `property` ¶

input `instance-attribute` ¶

validation_result `class-attribute` `instance-attribute` ¶

value `instance-attribute` ¶

action_submit `async` ¶