Checkbox does not stay checked when using random number for key

Using Streamlit
1

Hi,

I am running my app locally for now, and seem to be having trouble with the checkbox staying checked.
Working version:
It works well when I use a range of numbers for keys but since I am looping multiple times in my original code, I eventually will hit the duplicate widget ID error.

widget_id = (i for i in range(2))
for i in range(2):
   st.checkbox(f"Download latest {i}", key = next(widget_id))

Non working version:
To avoid that, I used a random number generator for the key. Now, the checkbox does not stay checked at all, throwing off the flow of my code.

def infinite_random_number(start:int=0, end:int=10):
    while True:
        yield random.randint(0,10)
widget_id = infinite_random_number()
for i in range(2):
    st.checkbox(f"Download latest {i}", key = next(widget_id))

All this was to avoid duplicate widget id error. I tried generating numbers in a large range but I ran out of unique keys looks like after some runs.
I searched through forums, etc. for solutions but seemed to settle on this which is causing this behavior.

Alternatively, if there is a good solution out there for doing multiple runs and not get duplicate widget id, I am open to that too.

Streamlit version:1.36.0
Python version:3.12

Thanks,
Anu

2

That is expected, a different key means a different widget with different state.

How do you hit the duplicate widget error using ranges? Your example does not show that. Ranges don’t have duplicates.

3

Thanks for the response.
This is my original code snippet.
I am trying to reproduce the problem now with this and am not able to (lot of experiments in the middle might have reset widget id values) but when I keep killing and restarting app multiple times, at some point, I hit the error. I cannot keep streamlit running since it is a shared test machine and I cannot block it for only this. I am thinking, that every restart the key gets assigned a new key and at some point, it hits duplicates. The other part was it seemed to be stuck at the first index for some reason.

#init to avoid out of index range error
input_latest_firmware = [i for i in range(5)]
input_customized_firmware = [i for i in range(5)]
version_filter = [i for i in range(5)]
input_customized_firmware_path = [i for i in range(5)]

firmware_types = ['fw_type1','fw_type2','fw_type3','fw_type4']    
widget_id = (i for i in range(10_000))
 
#customized firmware will provide options to filter by version or a custom path to copy from
    for i,type in enumerate(firmware_types, start =0):
        input_latest_firmware[i] = st.checkbox(f"Download latest {type} firmware",key = next(widget_id))
        input_customized_firmware[i] = st.checkbox(f"Customized {type} firmware", key = next(widget_id))
        if input_customized_firmware[i]:
            version_filter[i] = st.text_input(f"Requested {type} Version, use format x.x.x.xx: ")
            st.write(" OR ")
            input_customized_firmware_path[i] = st.text_input(f"Enter local path of {type} firmware hex file: ")
    download_ready = st.button("Download", key = next(widget_id))

The other thing I have been thinking of to get around with streamlit to continue to run is having a docker image with streamlit running all the time. The image is launched by user when required. I am relatively new to docker too so not sure if this is a fanciful thinking. I know I am going off on a tangent, but the duplicate widget id issue has been real and ate away a lot of my time, than me spending time on actually working on my app.

Thanks,
Anu

4

The only way I think this code can create duplicated keys is if there are duplicated firmware types. For example, if you have this:

firmware_types = ['fw_type1','fw_type1','fw_type3','fw_type4']

And you select “Customized fw_type1 firmware” twice, then duplicated text input widgets will be created. The way you generate the keys is irrelevant, since you are not assigning keys to these widgets.

5

I see. I do allow the users to pick between latest and customized between runs.
Run1:
fw_type1 could be with latest firmware checkbox and then press download.
Run2:
fw_type1 could be customized firmware checkbox and press download.
But they do have different keys depending on which one, latest or customized, because of the iterator.
Am I understanding this correctly.

6

I don’t understand what you mean here. I don’t think you can create duplicated widgets this way. I already told you how to trigger the error and why it happens.