PyQt5 – Combo Box with check-able items

Namachila October 30, 2025

0 2 1 minute read

In this article we will see how we can make a combo box who have check-able items. By default when we create a combo box its items are not check-able i.e we can select any one item at a time although we can create such combo box by editing the combo box class. Below is the representation of how check-able combo box look like.

In order to do this we have to make a new editable combo box class which inherits the combo box and adds a new feature of check able combo box, below is the syntax of new class

class CheckableComboBox(QComboBox):
    def __init__(self, parent = None):
        super(CheckableComboBox, self).__init__(parent)
        self.view().pressed.connect(self.handleItemPressed)
        self.setModel(QStandardItemModel(self))

    def handleItemPressed(self, index):
        item = self.model().itemFromIndex(index)
        if item.checkState() == Qt.Checked:
            item.setCheckState(Qt.Unchecked)
        else:
            item.setCheckState(Qt.Checked)

Below is the implementation –

# importing libraries 
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import * 
from PyQt5 import QtCore, QtGui 
from PyQt5.QtGui import * 
from PyQt5.QtCore import * 
import sys 
  
# new check-able combo box 
class CheckableComboBox(QComboBox): 
      
    # constructor 
    def __init__(self, parent = None): 
        super(CheckableComboBox, self).__init__(parent) 
        self.view().pressed.connect(self.handleItemPressed) 
        self.setModel(QStandardItemModel(self)) 
  
    # when any item get pressed 
    def handleItemPressed(self, index): 
          
        # getting the item 
        item = self.model().itemFromIndex(index) 
          
        # checking if item is checked 
        if item.checkState() == Qt.Checked: 
              
            # making it unchecked 
            item.setCheckState(Qt.Unchecked) 
              
        # if not checked 
        else: 
            # making the item checked 
            item.setCheckState(Qt.Checked) 
  
class Window(QMainWindow): 
  
    def __init__(self): 
        super().__init__() 
  
        # setting title 
        self.setWindowTitle("Python ") 
  
        # setting geometry 
        self.setGeometry(100, 100, 600, 400) 
  
        # calling method 
        self.UiComponents() 
  
        # showing all the widgets 
        self.show() 
  
    # method for widgets 
    def UiComponents(self): 
          
        # creating a check-able combo box object 
        self.combo_box = CheckableComboBox(self) 
  
        # setting geometry of combo box 
        self.combo_box.setGeometry(200, 150, 150, 30) 
  
        # geek list 
        geek_list = ["Sayian", "Super Sayian", 
                     "Super Sayian 2", "Super Sayian B"] 
  
        # adding list of items to combo box 
        self.combo_box.addItems(geek_list) 
  
  
# create pyqt5 app 
App = QApplication(sys.argv) 
  
# create the instance of our Window 
window = Window() 
  
window.show() 
  
# start the app 
sys.exit(App.exec()) 