Create a menu with QMenuBar PyQt5

1. Simple menu with QMenuBar PyQt5

To create a menu, the PyQt5 library has a class named QMenuBar which allows you to create a menu bar. By making an instantiation on the QMenuBar class, we create a menuBar object with the methods:

1. addMenu(): allowing to add a menu like File , Edit, Option...
2. addAction(): allowing to add commands to menu items like: File->Open , File->Save , File->Save As , File->Exit,...
3. addSeparator(): allowing to add a separator between the menu elements

Example

from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QWidget,QMenuBar
import sys 

app = QApplication(sys.argv)
root = QWidget()
root.setWindowTitle("Simple QMenu PyQt5")
root.setGeometry(100 , 100 , 500 , 300)

# create a Menubar by instanciating the QMenuBar class
menuBar = QMenuBar(root)
menuBar.setGeometry(0,0, 500, 25)

# create a menu called 'File'
File = menuBar.addMenu('File')

# add actions to the menu 'File' 
File.addAction('New')
File.addAction('Open' )
File.addAction('Save')
File.addAction('Save As')
File.addAction('Exit')
root.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

Remark

We can also add command action to the action menu for example when we click on the File->Open, a new window appears, when we click on the File->Exit we exit the window...

Example

from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QWidget,QMenuBar, QAction
import sys , os

def exit():
    root.close()

def new():
    os.popen("python simplemenu.py")


app = QApplication(sys.argv)
root = QWidget()
root.setWindowTitle("Simple QMenu PyQt5")
root.setGeometry(100 , 100 , 500 , 300)

# create a Menubar by instanciating the QMenuBar class
menuBar = QMenuBar(root)
menuBar.setGeometry(0,0, 500, 25)

# create a menu called 'File'
File = menuBar.addMenu('File')

# add actions to the menu 'File' 
File.addAction('New' , new)
File.addAction('Open' )
File.addAction('Save')
File.addAction('Save As')
File.addAction('Exit' , exit)
root.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

2. QMenuBar according to the object approach PyQt5

In order to write a clean code, we can also write previous code by using the python class:

from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QWidget,QMenuBar
import sys, os

class MyWindow(QWidget):

    def __init__(self, win):
        super().__init__()
        self.win = win

    def exit(self):
        self.win.close()    
    

    def new(self):
        os.popen("python object1.py")

    def build(self):
        self.win.setWindowTitle("Example QMenu PyQt5")
        self.win.setGeometry(100 , 100 , 500 , 300)
        self.menubar = QMenuBar(self.win)
        self.File = self.menubar.addMenu('File')
        self.File.addAction('New' , self.new)
        self.File.addAction('Exit' , self.exit)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    root = QWidget()
    mywin = MyWindow(root)
    mywin.build()
    
    root.show()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

3. Add an action to a menu item using the QAction class

Now we will see another method of adding an action to a menu item using the QAction class. For this purpose the following steps must be followed:

1. we create the action: using QAction class
2. We add the action: to the menu using the addAction() method
3. We connect the action: to the method that performs the action using the triggered.connect() method

# create an action with QAction class
exitAction = QAction('&Exit' , self)

# adding action to the menu File
self.File.addAction(exitAction)

# adding a shrtcut to the action
exitAction.setShortcut('Ctrl+Q')

# connecting to the method that perform the action
exitAction.triggered.connect(self.exit)

Full code

from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QWidget,QMenuBar, QAction
import sys, os

class MyWindow(QWidget):

    def __init__(self, win):
        super().__init__()
        self.win = win

    def exit(self):
        self.win.close()    
    

    def new(self):
        os.popen("python object1.py")

    def build(self):
        self.win.setWindowTitle("Example QMenu PyQt5")
        self.win.setGeometry(100 , 100 , 500 , 300)
        self.menubar = QMenuBar(self.win)
        self.File = self.menubar.addMenu('File')

        # create an action with QAction class
        exitAction = QAction('&Exit' , self)

        # adding action to the menu File
        self.File.addAction(exitAction)

        # adding a shrtcut to the action
        exitAction.setShortcut('Ctrl+Q')
        
        # connecting to the method that perform the action
        exitAction.triggered.connect(self.exit)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    root = QWidget()
    mywin = MyWindow(root)
    mywin.build()
    
    root.show()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

Younes Derfoufi
my-courses.net