How to call a function with delay in tkinter?

Question

I have a function bound to the left mouse button that creates a piece on a playing board. In the end of that function, I call another function that creates another piece placed by the computer. I want this to be delayed, but so far I have not been able to do it.

I tried using "after" when I call the second function in the end of the first function, but that delays the initial function too, so both pieces are placed after the set time instead of one instantly, and then the other after a delay.

Edit: Tried this, but still the same issue. Is something wrong with this piece of code?

def onClick(self, event):
    self.newMove(event)
    self.gui.after(2000, self.AI())

So my question is basically how this could be solved in a neat way.

Bryan Oakley · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-15 15:26:23Z

3

Using after is how you accomplish what you want.

The mistake in your code is that you're immediately calling the function in your after statement. after requires a reference to a function. Change your statement to this (note the lack of () after self.AI)

self.gui.after(2000, self.AI)

Here is an example that automatically draws a second circle two seconds after you click:

import Tkinter as tk

class Example(tk.Frame):
    def __init__(self, parent):
        tk.Frame.__init__(self, parent)

        self.canvas = tk.Canvas(self, width=400, height=400)
        self.canvas.pack(fill="both", expand=True)

        self.canvas.bind("<1>", self.on_click)

    def on_click(self, event):
        self.draw_piece(event.x, event.y)
        self.after(2000, self.draw_piece, event.x+40, event.y+40, "green")

    def draw_piece(self, x, y, color="white"):
        self.canvas.create_oval(x-10, y-10, x+10, y+10, outline="black", fill=color)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    root = tk.Tk()
    Example(root).pack(fill="both", expand=True)
    root.mainloop()

edited Mar 15, 2016 at 15:26

answered Mar 15, 2016 at 14:00

Bryan Oakley

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3 Comments

David Hasselberg Over a year ago

Thanks for the reply! Your code works great, but when I try to implement a similar structure in my program it still delays both functions. Edited my post with what I have written, can you check if I did something wrong there?

Bryan Oakley Over a year ago

You have extra parenthesis; you need to give the name of a function: self.gui.after(2000, self.AI)

David Hasselberg Over a year ago

Edit: Fixed the problem. Thanks!

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