To create a menu for a PyQt5 program we need to use a QMainWindow. This type of menu is visible in many applications and shows right below the window bar. It usually has a file and edit sub menu.

Related course:
Practice Python with interactive exercises

The top menu can be created with the method menuBar(). Sub menus are added with addMenu(name) Example:

mainMenu = self.menuBar()
fileMenu = mainMenu.addMenu('File')
editMenu = mainMenu.addMenu('Edit')
viewMenu = mainMenu.addMenu('View')
searchMenu = mainMenu.addMenu('Search')
toolsMenu = mainMenu.addMenu('Tools')
helpMenu = mainMenu.addMenu('Help')

Individual buttons can be added to the menus like this:

exitButton = QAction(QIcon('exit24.png'), 'Exit', self)
exitButton.setShortcut('Ctrl+Q')
exitButton.setStatusTip('Exit application')
exitButton.triggered.connect(self.close)
fileMenu.addAction(exitButton)

PyQt5 menu example

Full code:

import sys
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QMainWindow, QApplication, QWidget, QPushButton, QAction
from PyQt5.QtGui import QIcon
from PyQt5.QtCore import pyqtSlot
class App(QMainWindow):
    
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.title = 'PyQt5 menu - pythonspot.com'
        self.left = 10
        self.top = 10
        self.width = 640
        self.height = 400
        self.initUI()
    
    def initUI(self):
        self.setWindowTitle(self.title)
        self.setGeometry(self.left, self.top, self.width, self.height)
        
        mainMenu = self.menuBar()
        fileMenu = mainMenu.addMenu('File')
        editMenu = mainMenu.addMenu('Edit')
        viewMenu = mainMenu.addMenu('View')
        searchMenu = mainMenu.addMenu('Search')
        toolsMenu = mainMenu.addMenu('Tools')
        helpMenu = mainMenu.addMenu('Help')
        
        exitButton = QAction(QIcon('exit24.png'), 'Exit', self)
        exitButton.setShortcut('Ctrl+Q')
        exitButton.setStatusTip('Exit application')
        exitButton.triggered.connect(self.close)
        fileMenu.addAction(exitButton)
    
        self.show()
    
if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    ex = App()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

Result:

Download PyQT5 Examples