I thinkQApplication.setOverrideCursor is what you're looking for:

PyQt6:

from PyQt6.QtCore import Qtfrom PyQt6.QtWidgets import QApplication...QApplication.setOverrideCursor(Qt.CursorShape.WaitCursor)# do lengthy processQApplication.restoreOverrideCursor()

PyQt5:

from PyQt5.QtCore import Qtfrom PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication...QApplication.setOverrideCursor(Qt.WaitCursor)# do lengthy processQApplication.restoreOverrideCursor()

PyQt4:

from PyQt4.QtCore import Qtfrom PyQt4.QtGui import QApplication...QApplication.setOverrideCursor(Qt.WaitCursor)# do lengthy processQApplication.restoreOverrideCursor()

While Cameron's and David's answers are great for setting the wait cursor over an entire function, I find that a context manager works best for setting the wait cursor for snippets of code:

from contextlib import contextmanagerfrom PyQt4 import QtCorefrom PyQt4.QtGui import QApplication, QCursor@contextmanagerdef wait_cursor():    try:        QApplication.setOverrideCursor(QCursor(QtCore.Qt.WaitCursor))        yield    finally:        QApplication.restoreOverrideCursor()

Then put the lengthy process code in a with block:

with wait_cursor():    # do lengthy process    pass

ekhumoro's solution is correct. This solution is a modification for the sake of style. I used what ekhumor's did but used a python decorator.

from PyQt4.QtCore import Qtfrom PyQt4.QtGui import QApplication, QCursor, QMainWidgetdef waiting_effects(function):    def new_function(self):        QApplication.setOverrideCursor(QCursor(Qt.WaitCursor))        try:            function(self)        except Exception as e:            raise e            print("Error {}".format(e.args[0]))        finally:            QApplication.restoreOverrideCursor()    return new_function

I can just put the decorator on any method I would like the spinner to be active on.

class MyWigdet(QMainWidget):    # ...    @waiting_effects    def doLengthyProcess(self):        # do lengthy process        pass

Better this way:

def waiting_effects(function):    def new_function(*args, **kwargs):        QApplication.setOverrideCursor(QCursor(Qt.WaitCursor))        try:            return function(*args, **kwargs)        except Exception as e:            raise e            print("Error {}".format(e.args[0]))        finally:            QApplication.restoreOverrideCursor()    return new_function

You can use the class QgsTemporaryCursorOverridehttps://qgis.org/api/classQgsTemporaryCursorOverride.html

But in Python, you should use the Python context manager which is now included in PyQGIS :

from qgis.PyQt.QtCore import Qtfrom qgis.utils import OverrideCursorwith OverrideCursor(Qt.WaitCursor):    do_a_slow(operation)

from qtpy import QtCore, QtGui, QtWidgetsdef waiting_effect(function):    def waiting(*args, **kwargs):        QtWidgets.QApplication.setOverrideCursor(             QtCore.Qt.CursorShape(QtCore.Qt.CursorShape.WaitCursor)        )        try:            function(*args, **kwargs)             finally:            QtWidgets.QApplication.restoreOverrideCursor()

If using PyQt5/PySide2, this might be of use, works nicely with decorating functions that have multiple arguments.

The best way to add the cursor according to me would be by using the decorators. By this way you can run any function by just adding the cursor to that function as decorator

import decorator@decorator.decoratordef showWaitCursor(func, *args, **kwargs):    QtWidgets.QApplication.setOverrideCursor(QtCore.Qt.WaitCursor)    try:        return func(*args, **kwargs)    finally:        QtWidgets.QApplication.restoreOverrideCursor()@showWaitCursordef youFunc():    # Long process

I find I often need to do:

QApplication.setOverrideCursor(Qt.WaitCursor)QApplication.ProcessEvents()...QApplication.restoreOverrideCursor()

However! During init of the GUI, I've found a modification needs to be made for some reason:

self.ui.show()  # Or your equivalent code to show the widgetQApplication.processEvents()QApplication.setOverrideCursor(Qt.WaitCursor)app.processEvents()...QApplication.restoreOverrideCursor()

Otherwise the cursor does not "restore" until the mouse passes over a widget that modifies it (like a QLineEdit), similar to what @Guimoute mentioned

• python
• pyqt
• pyqt5
• pyqt4
• mouse-cursor