Lesson 5 · 5 of 20

Password fields · tkinter

Hide what is typed in a tkinter Entry with show="•" and add a button that shows or hides the password.

tkinter · Password fields in DMarlon Studio: the example's code and the window it opens when run

The User field is a plain ttk.Entry. This time it has no variable: it is filled with `user.insert(0, "marlon")`, which inserts the text at position 0, the start.

The password field has `show="•"`: every character is drawn as a dot. The real text is still there; only the way it looks changes. Any character works, for example show="*".

toggle() reads the current option with `cget("show")`. If the text is hidden, it sets show="" (the text is visible) and the button changes to «Hide»; otherwise it goes back to "•" and «Show». Because toggle changes the button, the button is kept in the variable button.

password.get() returns the real text, not the dots: the label underneath shows its length, 9 characters. trace_add updates it as soon as you type, and the call to show_length() fills it in at start-up.

DMarlon Studio offers two ways: the Text field has a *Mask with* property, which is this same show, and the palette also has a Password component, a ready-made field with a button to reveal the password that you switch on in the inspector.

Code · main.py

import tkinter as tkfrom tkinter import ttkroot = tk.Tk()root.title("Sign in")root.geometry("420x290")password = tk.StringVar(value="secret123")ttk.Label(root, text="User").pack(anchor="w", padx=60, pady=(24, 2))user = ttk.Entry(root, width=30)user.insert(0, "marlon")user.pack(anchor="w", padx=60)# show="•" draws every character as a dot; the text is still there.ttk.Label(root, text="Password").pack(anchor="w", padx=60, pady=(12, 2))secret = ttk.Entry(root, textvariable=password, show="•", width=30)secret.pack(anchor="w", padx=60)def toggle():    hidden = secret.cget("show") != ""    secret.config(show="" if hidden else "•")    button.config(text="Hide" if hidden else "Show")button = ttk.Button(root, text="Show", command=toggle)button.pack(anchor="w", padx=56, pady=10)info = ttk.Label(root, foreground="#475569")info.pack(anchor="w", padx=60)def show_length(*args):  # get() returns the real text, not the dots    info.config(text=f"Length: {len(password.get())} characters")password.trace_add("write", show_length)show_length()root.mainloop()

Key points

show="•" hides what is typed; show="" shows it again.
get() returns the real text, not the dots.
insert(0, text) fills an Entry that has no variable.
cget("option") reads the current value of an option.

Exercise

Use show="*" and make the label say «Too short» in red when the password has fewer than 8 characters.