When building desktop applications with PyQt5 or PySide2, the QTableView is the go-to widget for displaying spreadsheet-like data. A common requirement is to retrieve the data from a row when a user clicks on it.

In this guide, we’ll show you the most efficient way to access cell data using the Selection Model and the sibling() method.

The Core Solution

To get data from a selected row, you first need to access the table’s selectionModel(). Once you have the current index, you can “look sideways” to other columns in that same row using the sibling() function.

Code Snippet

# 1. Get the selection model
selection_model = tableview.selectionModel()

if selection_model.hasSelection():
    # 2. Get the index of the currently clicked cell
    current_index = selection_model.currentIndex()
    row = current_index.row()

    # 3. Use sibling to get data from other columns in the same row
    # sibling(row, column)
    id_val = current_index.sibling(row, 0).data()
    name_val = current_index.sibling(row, 1).data()

    print(f"Selected Row {row}: ID={id_val}, Name={name_val}")

A Complete, Runnable Example

Here is a full Python script demonstrating a functional table with a “Get Selection” button.

import sys
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QMainWindow, QTableView, QVBoxLayout, QWidget, QPushButton
from PyQt5.QtGui import QStandardItemModel, QStandardItem

class TableApp(QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.setWindowTitle("PyQt5 Table Selection Demo")
        self.setGeometry(100, 100, 400, 300)

        # 1. Setup the Model
        self.model = QStandardItemModel(4, 2)
        self.model.setHorizontalHeaderLabels(['ID', 'Name'])

        data = [('1', 'Alice'), ('2', 'Bob'), ('3', 'Charlie')]
        for r, (uid, name) in enumerate(data):
            self.model.setItem(r, 0, QStandardItem(uid))
            self.model.setItem(r, 1, QStandardItem(name))

        # 2. Setup the View
        self.table = QTableView()
        self.table.setModel(self.model)
        self.table.setSelectionBehavior(QTableView.SelectRows) # Select full rows

        # 3. Setup Layout
        layout = QVBoxLayout()
        layout.addWidget(self.table)

        btn = QPushButton("Print Selected Data")
        btn.clicked.connect(self.print_selection)
        layout.addWidget(btn)

        container = QWidget()
        container.setLayout(layout)
        self.setCentralWidget(container)

    def print_selection(self):
        index = self.table.selectionModel().currentIndex()
        if index.isValid():
            row = index.row()
            # Get data from column 1 (Name)
            name = index.sibling(row, 1).data()
            print(f"You selected: {name}")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    window = TableApp()
    window.show()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

Why use sibling()?

Using sibling(row, column) is considered the best practice in Qt’s Model/View architecture because: 1. Safety: It ensures you are looking at the data relative to the current selection. 2. Performance: It directly accesses the model’s index without needing to loop through the entire dataset. 3. Flexibility: It works even if your table is sorted or filtered.

Summary Checklist

• Set selectionBehavior to SelectRows if you want the whole row highlighted.
• Check if hasSelection() or isValid() is true before accessing data to avoid crashes.
• Use index.row() to identify the row number.
• Use index.sibling(row, col).data() to extract the actual value.

Happy coding with PyQt!

Written by

Abdur-Rahmaan Janhangeer

Chef

Python author of 9+ years having worked for Python companies around the world

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