How to programatically form QLineEdit() object names?

[scot_hansen]

I am writting a GUI program using Python 2.7 and PyQt on Windows. My program reads parameter values from xml files and displays them allowing the user to change them on a GUI screen. The parameter names and the file where they are stored at are in a configuration xml file that I created by hand.

The program displays roughly 50 values on the screen. To display the initial values of the parameters once they are read in from the data files, I need 50 lines of code to display the values:

ui.txtBox1.setText(value1)
ui.txtBox2.setText(value2)
..........
ui.txtBox50.setText(value50)

I have a class for the form, winForm generated by QT designer. In the main Python code file, ui is the object created from the winForm class (ui = winForm()).

Is there a way to programatically form these text box commands to set the text so I don't need 50 lines of code?

In the configuration xml file that I created that is used by the program, I store the text box name for the variable. For example:

<boxName>ui.txtBox1</boxName>

I created an object, VarObject from a custom class that stores the boxName and the initial value of the parameter.

I then use the box name like this to set the text box value:
boxName.setText(value)

and get the error: boxName doesn't have a setText() attribute or member

I have also tried to store the text box names in a list and dictionary:

list = [ui.txtBox1, ui.txtBox2 ........]
dict = { "key1":uitxtBox1, "key2":uitxtBox2, ......}

Then I use list[0].setText(value)

That doesn't work either. I prefer to store the text box names in my configuration xml file so I don't have to modify the Python code.

Thank you for your help.

[norobro]

The reason that your code is not working is that you need the pointers to the objects in the form. Try something like this (in C++ -don't know Python):

QHash<QString, QLineEdit *> hash;
QList<QLineEdit *>lineEditNames = findChildren<QLineEdit *>();
foreach(QLineEdit *lineEditPtr, lineEditNames)
    hash[lineEditPtr->objectName()]=lineEditPtr;
 
hash.value(txtBox1)->setText(value);  // put this in the loop where you read from your xml file

QHash<QString, QLineEdit *> hash;
QList<QLineEdit *>lineEditNames = findChildren<QLineEdit *>();
foreach(QLineEdit *lineEditPtr, lineEditNames)
    hash[lineEditPtr->objectName()]=lineEditPtr;

hash.value(txtBox1)->setText(value);  // put this in the loop where you read from your xml file

To copy to clipboard, switch view to plain text mode 

QMap can also be used, but the docs say that QHash performs faster lookups.

Note: you will need to remove the "ui." from your object names.
HTH

[scot_hansen]

Thank you for the suggestion. I have several years of C++ experience and should be able to modify your code to work in Python. I feel the Python code will be a little shorter.