Table(3pm)

💖 Table — bestie edition 💖

okay so we're talking about Tk::Table, from the User Contributed Perl Documentation section of the perl/Tk manual pages (the 3pm girlies know). It's a scrollable 2 dimensional table of Tk widgets. yes really. that's the whole vibe. 💅

---

✨ NAME ✨

Tk::Table — Scrollable 2 dimensional table of Tk widgets 🦋

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

okay bestie, here's how you actually summon her:

use Tk::Table;

$table = $parent->Table(-rows => number,
                        -columns => number,
                        -scrollbars => anchor,
                        -fixedrows => number,
                        -fixedcolumns => number,
                        -takefocus => boolean);

$widget = $table->Button(...);

$old = $table->put($row,$col,$widget);
$old = $table->put($row,$col,"Text");  # simple Label
$widget = $table->get($row,$col);

$cols = $table->totalColumns;
$rows = $table->totalRows;

$table->see($widget);
$table->see($row,$col);

($row,$col) = $table->Posn($widget);

like. she's giving geometry manager. she's giving widget parent. she's giving everything. 🫶

---

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so Tk::Table is an all-perl widget/geometry manager that lets you display a two dimensional table of arbitrary perl/Tk widgets. any widgets. your widgets. no cap. 💖

Entries in the Table are literally just ordinary perl/Tk widgets — nothing fancy, nothing cursed. They should be created with the Table as their parent. And then you position them in the table using:

$table->put($row,$col,$widget)

and here's the cute part: if $widget is not a reference, it gets treated as a string, and a Label widget gets created with that string as its text. so you can just throw text in there and she'll handle it. iconic. ✨

---

🎀 sizing behavior (the way she aligns things)

All the widgets in each column are set to the same width — specifically the requested width of the widest widget in the column. Likewise, all the widgets in each row are set to the same height — the requested height of the tallest widget in the column.

---

🎀 fixed rows and columns

A number of rows and/or columns can be marked as 'fixed' — and so can serve as 'headings' for the remainder the rows which are scrollable. so like, sticky headers but make it Tk. 🧚

---

🎀 requested size

The requested size of the table as a whole is such that the number of rows specified by -rows (default 10) and the number of columns specified by -columns (default 10) can be displayed. defaults go crazy fr fr. 🌸

---

🎀 keyboard focus

If the Table is told it can take the keyboard focus, then cursor and scroll keys scroll the displayed widgets. keyboard girlies, this one's for you. 👑

---

🎀 -scrollbars

By default, scrollbars will be added "nw". To disable scrollbars, set -scrollbars to an empty string:

$table = $parent->Table(-scrollbars => '', ...);

not me turning off the scrollbars 💀

---

🎀 clearing the table

The table can be emptied using

$table->clear

⚠️ heads up bestie: the widgets which were in the table are destroyed. gone. deleted. not coming back. 😭

---

🎀 inheritance

The Tk::Table widget is derived from a Tk::Frame, so it inherits all its configure options. family money. 💜

---

🎀 focus traversal

The default focus traversal is giving the focus only to the table widget as a whole. To enable focus traversal into table cells (e.g. if there are embedded entry widgets), then the option -takefocus has to be set to 0.

yes, set it to 0 to get more focus traversal. that's not a typo, that's just how she is. 🙈

---

💀 BUGS / Snags / Possible enhancements 💀

look, she's not perfect, she's just iconic. here's the tea:

• Very large Tables consume a lot of X windows. 😭
• No equivalent of pack's -anchor/-pad etc. options.

---

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

go read these next, bestie:

• Tk::grid
• Tk::HList
• Tk::TableMatrix
• Tk::MListbox
• Tk::Columns

---

perl v5.40.1 · 2025-04-13 · Table(3pm)

and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 this was documented on 2025-04-13 for perl v5.40.1 in the Table(3pm) era of the perl/Tk manpages. slay, stay scrollable, and remember: your widgets get destroyed when you call clear. periodt. 💅✨