Read() method for InputText in PySimpleGUI only reading last row with variable layout

Question

I'm using the PySimpleGUI library, and trying to make a GUI (code below) to input a codeword puzzle (essentially the same format as a crossword). I want my GUI to be an array of textboxes of specified dimensions that can take a number or letter.

It builds a GUI of the correct format ( built GUI ), but when I enter the numbers 1-9 in each box ( filled GUI ) and click "OK", the output printed to the console is: "7,8,9,,,,,,,", so I assumed it is only reading the last set of inputs. If I leave the last row blank and fill the top two rows as before, I get ",,,,,,,,," outputted to the console. I tried changing the list comprehensions to for loops and got the same result, but when I hardcoded the layout (code below) and entered in 1-9, I got the desired "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,". How do you implement a layout for a PySimpleGUI using a variable(s)?

# original code
import PySimpleGUI as sg

def entryGUI(length, width):
    line = [sg.InputText('', size=(3, 1)) for i in range(length)]

    entryLayout = [line for i in range(width)]
    entryLayout.append([sg.CloseButton("OK"), sg.CloseButton("Cancel")])

    entryWin = sg.Window("CodeWord Solver").Layout(entryLayout)
    button, values = entryWin.Read()

    for value in values:
        print(value + ",", end="")

entryGUI(3, 3)

# hardcoded code
import PySimpleGUI as sg

def entryGUI(length, width):
    entryLayout = [
        [sg.InputText('', size=(3, 1)), sg.InputText('', size=(3, 1)), sg.InputText('', size=(3, 1))],
        [sg.InputText('', size=(3, 1)), sg.InputText('', size=(3, 1)), sg.InputText('', size=(3, 1))],
        [sg.InputText('', size=(3, 1)), sg.InputText('', size=(3, 1)), sg.InputText('', size=(3, 1))],
        [sg.CloseButton("OK"), sg.CloseButton("Cancel")]
    ]

    entryWin = sg.Window("CodeWord Solver").Layout(entryLayout)
    button, values = entryWin.Read()

    # if button != "OK":
    #     exit()
    # else:
    for value in values:
        print(value + ",", end="")
        #return values

entryGUI(3, 3)

Answer 1

The problem you're having is that you created a single variable called line that was a list of 3 objects. Elements are individual objects. The code instantiated 3 InputText Elements and stacked them on top of each other. This means you are working with the exact same 3 input elements on each row.

A way around this is to create 9 InputText elements, just like you did manually, but instead built inside of a loop.

Try this code:

import PySimpleGUI as sg

def entryGUI(length, width):
    entryLayout = []
    for i in range(width):
        line = [sg.InputText('', size=(3, 1)) for i in range(length)]
        entryLayout.append(line)
    entryLayout.append([sg.CloseButton("OK"), sg.CloseButton("Cancel")])

    entryWin = sg.Window("CodeWord Solver").Layout(entryLayout)
    button, values = entryWin.Read()
    print (values)
    for value in values:
        print(value + ",", end="")

entryGUI(3, 3)

Or for a shorter and even simpler one:

import PySimpleGUI as sg

def entryGUI(length, width):
    entryLayout = [[sg.InputText('', size=(3, 1)) for i in range(length)] for _ in range(width)] + [[sg.CloseButton("OK"), sg.CloseButton("Cancel")]]

    entryWin = sg.Window("CodeWord Solver").Layout(entryLayout)
    button, values = entryWin.Read()
    print(','.join(values))

entryGUI(3, 3)