How can I change the cursor shape with PyQt?

I think QApplication.setOverrideCursor is what you're looking for:

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