QSignalMapper

The QSignalMapper class bundles signals from identifiable senders.

This class collects a set of parameterless signals, and re-emits them with integer, string or widget parameters corresponding to the object that sent the signal.

The class supports the mapping of particular strings or integers with particular objects using setMapping(). The objects' signals can then be connected to the map() slot which will emit the mapped() signal with the string or integer associated with the original signalling object. Mappings can be removed later using removeMappings().

Example: Suppose we want to create a custom widget that contains a group of buttons (like a tool palette). One approach is to connect each button's clicked() signal to its own custom slot; but in this example we want to connect all the buttons to a single slot and parameterize the slot by the button that was clicked.

Here's the definition of a simple custom widget that has a single signal, clicked(), which is emitted with the text of the button that was clicked:

 class ButtonWidget : public QWidget
 {
     Q_OBJECT

 public:
     ButtonWidget(QStringList texts, QWidget *parent = 0);

 signals:
     void clicked(const QString &text);

 private:
     QSignalMapper *signalMapper;
 };

The only function that we need to implement is the constructor:

 ButtonWidget::ButtonWidget(QStringList texts, QWidget *parent)
     : QWidget(parent)
 {
     signalMapper = new QSignalMapper(this);

     QGridLayout *gridLayout = new QGridLayout;
     for (int i = 0; i < texts.size(); ++i) {
         QPushButton *button = new QPushButton(texts[i]);
         connect(button, SIGNAL(clicked()), signalMapper, SLOT(map()));
         signalMapper->setMapping(button, texts[i]);
         gridLayout->addWidget(button, i / 3, i % 3);
     }

     connect(signalMapper, SIGNAL(mapped(const QString &)),
             this, SIGNAL(clicked(const QString &)));

     setLayout(gridLayout);
 }

A list of texts is passed to the constructor. A signal mapper is constructed and for each text in the list a QPushButton is created. We connect each button's clicked() signal to the signal mapper's map() slot, and create a mapping in the signal mapper from each button to the button's text. Finally we connect the signal mapper's mapped() signal to the custom widget's clicked() signal. When the user clicks a button, the custom widget will emit a single clicked() signal whose argument is the text of the button the user clicked.