how to make a tkinter button click itself?

Question

I'm trying to make a clicker game for my friend. I just want to know how to make a button that when clicked, clicks another button. Here is some of the code:

from tkinter import *
import time
root = Tk()
root.geometry('600x600')
score = 2000000
clicker_counter = 0

def counter():
    global score
    score += 1
    points_label.config(text=score)

def autoclicker(args):
    global clicker_counter
    if args == 1:
        pass

def clickerpurchase():
    global clicker_counter
    global score
    if score >= 1000:
        score -= 1000
        clicker_counter += 1
        points_label.config(text=score)
        clicker_label['text'] += str(clicker_counter)
        clicker_label.config(text='purchase clicker(1k): ' + str(clicker_counter))

clicker_button = Button(root, text='purchase', command=lambda:[clickerpurchase, autoclicker(1)])
clicker_button.grid(row=0, column=3)

clicker_label = Label(root, text='purchase clicker(1k): ')
clicker_label.grid(row=0, column=2)

points_label = Label(root, text='0')
points_label.grid(row=0, column=1)

points_button = Button(root, text='click me', command=counter)
points_button.grid(row=0, column=0)

points_label.config(text=score)
root.mainloop()

The clicker_button is the main concern. The clickerpurchase() function is in charge of updating the score and clicker_counter. The button is also tied to autoclicker(args). I want the clicker_button to click the points_button every once in a while. I was thinking of putting the auto clicking code in the autoclicker(args) function, but I don't know the code for it.

EDIT: I made a 'while' loop in my counter() function and added args to it. I gave points_button an arg of 1 and clicker_button an arg of 2. My code now looks like this:

def counter(args):
    global score
    if args == 1:
        score += 1
        points_label.config(text=score)
    if args == 2:
        while args == 2:
            time.sleep(1)
            points_button.invoke()

points_button = Button(root, text='click me', command=counter(1))
points_button.grid(row=0, column=0)

clicker_button = Button(root, text='purchase', command=lambda:[clickerpurchase, counter(2)])
clicker_button.grid(row=0, column=3)

Whenever I click the clicker_button the points_button gets clicked, but the program crashes. I completely discarded the autoclicker(args) function.

Why exactly do you want the button to be clicked? You can just call the associated function `counter()` every once in a while as you desire. — astqx, Dec 29 '20 at 02:14
@AST the args value does not do anything. I was just looking for a way to solve the problem. — maze, Dec 29 '20 at 03:46
@AST instead of clicking manually to get the score I want the program to click for me every once in a while. Note that the score is supposed to equal to zero. I set it high for testing purposes — maze, Dec 29 '20 at 03:51
@BryanOakley could you please link me to it? I can't find it — maze, Dec 29 '20 at 03:54
@MaZe `invoke()` takes no parameter. So just use `clicker_button.invoke()` if you want to invoke the clicker_button — JacksonPro, Dec 29 '20 at 04:01
You do realize that you needed to use `()` with `command=lambda:[clickerpurchase(), autoclicker(1)]` right? — Delrius Euphoria, Dec 29 '20 at 05:14

astqx · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-29T05:08:17.943

As far as your function is concerned, you could try something like this

def autoclicker(args):
    global clicker_counter
    if args == 1:
        time_interval=1000 #change it as you like
        points_button.invoke()
        root.after(time_interval,lambda:autoclicker(1))

I have used the root.after() method and this will invoke your points_button every time_interval milliseconds you specify.

Also, by what I have understood your aim is (please feel free to correct me on this), you don't really need a button to increase the score in the first place, you can just replace the points_button.invoke() in the code with counter() and it should give the same result. Even if you plan to have multiple of these, you can maybe pass on a different arguments to clickerpurchase(), counter(), autoclicker(args) to have different scores for each item.

EDIT (after question edit)

time.sleep() in an infinite loop will not work as the entire program will wait for that to be complete before it can execute any other thing, and so it stops responding and crashes. Try to use the .after() method in a similar way as I have mentioned above.

And if you want to work without the autoclicker() function as you said in the edit, you can make the following changes

def counter(args):
    global score
    if args==1:
        score += 1
        points_label.config(text=score)
    elif args==2:
        time_interval=1000 #change it as you like
        points_button.invoke()
        root.after(time_interval,lambda:counter(2))

points_button = Button(root, text='click me', command=lambda:counter(1))

Another thing just for your information, I have noticed something which could be a logical issue, if the person clicks the `clicker_button` after they have already clicked it, since you have linked the `counter(2)` to the button, it will increase the frequency of score update and will fail to decrease the score as well, to overcome this, you can remove calling the `counter` function from the purchase button and add some condition in `clickerpurchase` like `counter(2)` is only called `if score==0`. — astqx, Dec 29 '20 at 05:29

how to make a tkinter button click itself?

1 Answers1