How to detect current keyboard language in python

Question

My keyboard has 2 keyboard languages that I have been switching , greek and english. How can I get the current keyboard language ? Ar there any useful libraries that can do the trick for me ? I have being using python 3.5.2 , Windows 10

Answer 1

import ctypes

def get_keyboard_language():
    """
    Gets the keyboard language in use by the current
    active window process.
    """

    languages = {'0x436' : "Afrikaans - South Africa", '0x041c' : "Albanian - Albania", '0x045e' : "Amharic - Ethiopia", '0x401' : "Arabic - Saudi Arabia",
                 '0x1401' : "Arabic - Algeria", '0x3c01' : "Arabic - Bahrain", '0x0c01' : "Arabic - Egypt", '0x801' : "Arabic - Iraq", '0x2c01' : "Arabic - Jordan",
                 '0x3401' : "Arabic - Kuwait", '0x3001' : "Arabic - Lebanon", '0x1001' : "Arabic - Libya", '0x1801' : "Arabic - Morocco", '0x2001' : "Arabic - Oman",
                 '0x4001' : "Arabic - Qatar", '0x2801' : "Arabic - Syria", '0x1c01' : "Arabic - Tunisia", '0x3801' : "Arabic - U.A.E.", '0x2401' : "Arabic - Yemen",
                 '0x042b' : "Armenian - Armenia", '0x044d' : "Assamese", '0x082c' : "Azeri (Cyrillic)", '0x042c' : "Azeri (Latin)", '0x042d' : "Basque",
                 '0x423' : "Belarusian", '0x445' : "Bengali (India)", '0x845' : "Bengali (Bangladesh)", '0x141A' : "Bosnian (Bosnia/Herzegovina)", '0x402' : "Bulgarian",
                 '0x455' : "Burmese", '0x403' : "Catalan", '0x045c' : "Cherokee - United States", '0x804' : "Chinese - People's Republic of China", 
                 '0x1004' : "Chinese - Singapore", '0x404' : "Chinese - Taiwan", '0x0c04' : "Chinese - Hong Kong SAR", '0x1404' : "Chinese - Macao SAR", '0x041a' : "Croatian",
                 '0x101a' : "Croatian (Bosnia/Herzegovina)", '0x405' : "Czech", '0x406' : "Danish", '0x465' : "Divehi", '0x413' : "Dutch - Netherlands", '0x813' : "Dutch - Belgium",
                 '0x466' : "Edo", '0x409' : "English - United States", '0x809' : "English - United Kingdom", '0x0c09' : "English - Australia", '0x2809' : "English - Belize",
                 '0x1009' : "English - Canada", '0x2409' : "English - Caribbean", '0x3c09' : "English - Hong Kong SAR", '0x4009' : "English - India", '0x3809' : "English - Indonesia",
                 '0x1809' : "English - Ireland", '0x2009' : "English - Jamaica", '0x4409' : "English - Malaysia", '0x1409' : "English - New Zealand", '0x3409' : "English - Philippines",
                 '0x4809' : "English - Singapore", '0x1c09' : "English - South Africa", '0x2c09' : "English - Trinidad", '0x3009' : "English - Zimbabwe", '0x425' : "Estonian",
                 '0x438' : "Faroese", '0x429' : "Farsi", '0x464' : "Filipino", '0x040b' : "Finnish", '0x040c' : "French - France", '0x080c' : "French - Belgium",
                 '0x2c0c' : "French - Cameroon", '0x0c0c' : "French - Canada", '0x240c' : "French - Democratic Rep. of Congo", '0x300c' : "French - Cote d'Ivoire",
                 '0x3c0c' : "French - Haiti", '0x140c' : "French - Luxembourg", '0x340c' : "French - Mali", '0x180c' : "French - Monaco", '0x380c' : "French - Morocco",
                 '0xe40c' : "French - North Africa", '0x200c' : "French - Reunion", '0x280c' : "French - Senegal", '0x100c' : "French - Switzerland", 
                 '0x1c0c' : "French - West Indies", '0x462' : "Frisian - Netherlands", '0x467' : "Fulfulde - Nigeria", '0x042f' : "FYRO Macedonian", '0x083c' : "Gaelic (Ireland)",
                 '0x043c' : "Gaelic (Scotland)", '0x456' : "Galician", '0x437' : "Georgian", '0x407' : "German - Germany", '0x0c07' : "German - Austria", '0x1407' : "German - Liechtenstein",
                 '0x1007' : "German - Luxembourg", '0x807' : "German - Switzerland", '0x408' : "Greek", '0x474' : "Guarani - Paraguay", '0x447' : "Gujarati", '0x468' : "Hausa - Nigeria",
                 '0x475' : "Hawaiian - United States", '0x040d' : "Hebrew", '0x439' : "Hindi", '0x040e' : "Hungarian", '0x469' : "Ibibio - Nigeria", '0x040f' : "Icelandic",
                 '0x470' : "Igbo - Nigeria", '0x421' : "Indonesian", '0x045d' : "Inuktitut", '0x410' : "Italian - Italy", '0x810' : "Italian - Switzerland", '0x411' : "Japanese",
                 '0x044b' : "Kannada", '0x471' : "Kanuri - Nigeria", '0x860' : "Kashmiri", '0x460' : "Kashmiri (Arabic)", '0x043f' : "Kazakh", '0x453' : "Khmer", '0x457' : "Konkani",
                 '0x412' : "Korean", '0x440' : "Kyrgyz (Cyrillic)", '0x454' : "Lao", '0x476' : "Latin", '0x426' : "Latvian", '0x427' : "Lithuanian", '0x043e' : "Malay - Malaysia",
                 '0x083e' : "Malay - Brunei Darussalam", '0x044c' : "Malayalam", '0x043a' : "Maltese", '0x458' : "Manipuri", '0x481' : "Maori - New Zealand", '0x044e' : "Marathi",
                 '0x450' : "Mongolian (Cyrillic)", '0x850' : "Mongolian (Mongolian)", '0x461' : "Nepali", '0x861' : "Nepali - India", '0x414' : "Norwegian (Bokmål)", 
                 '0x814' : "Norwegian (Nynorsk)", '0x448' : "Oriya", '0x472' : "Oromo", '0x479' : "Papiamentu", '0x463' : "Pashto", '0x415' : "Polish", '0x416' : "Portuguese - Brazil",
                 '0x816' : "Portuguese - Portugal", '0x446' : "Punjabi", '0x846' : "Punjabi (Pakistan)", '0x046B' : "Quecha - Bolivia", '0x086B' : "Quecha - Ecuador", 
                 '0x0C6B' : "Quecha - Peru", '0x417' : "Rhaeto-Romanic", '0x418' : "Romanian", '0x818' : "Romanian - Moldava", '0x419' : "Russian", '0x819' : "Russian - Moldava",
                 '0x043b' : "Sami (Lappish)", '0x044f' : "Sanskrit", '0x046c' : "Sepedi", '0x0c1a' : "Serbian (Cyrillic)", '0x081a' : "Serbian (Latin)", '0x459' : "Sindhi - India",
                 '0x859' : "Sindhi - Pakistan", '0x045b' : "Sinhalese - Sri Lanka", '0x041b' : "Slovak", '0x424' : "Slovenian", '0x477' : "Somali", '0x042e' : "Sorbian", 
                 '0x0c0a' : "Spanish - Spain (Modern Sort)", '0x040a' : "Spanish - Spain (Traditional Sort)", '0x2c0a' : "Spanish - Argentina", '0x400a' : "Spanish - Bolivia",
                 '0x340a' : "Spanish - Chile", '0x240a' : "Spanish - Colombia", '0x140a' : "Spanish - Costa Rica", '0x1c0a' : "Spanish - Dominican Republic", 
                 '0x300a' : "Spanish - Ecuador", '0x440a' : "Spanish - El Salvador", '0x100a' : "Spanish - Guatemala", '0x480a' : "Spanish - Honduras", '0xe40a' : "Spanish - Latin America",
                 '0x080a' : "Spanish - Mexico", '0x4c0a' : "Spanish - Nicaragua", '0x180a' : "Spanish - Panama", '0x3c0a' : "Spanish - Paraguay", '0x280a' : "Spanish - Peru",
                 '0x500a' : "Spanish - Puerto Rico", '0x540a' : "Spanish - United States", '0x380a' : "Spanish - Uruguay", '0x200a' : "Spanish - Venezuela", '0x430' : "Sutu",
                 '0x441' : "Swahili", '0x041d' : "Swedish", '0x081d' : "Swedish - Finland", '0x045a' : "Syriac", '0x428' : "Tajik", '0x045f' : "Tamazight (Arabic)", 
                 '0x085f' : "Tamazight (Latin)", '0x449' : "Tamil", '0x444' : "Tatar", '0x044a' : "Telugu", '0x041e' : "Thai", '0x851' : "Tibetan - Bhutan", 
                 '0x451' : "Tibetan - People's Republic of China", '0x873' : "Tigrigna - Eritrea", '0x473' : "Tigrigna - Ethiopia", '0x431' : "Tsonga", '0x432' : "Tswana",
                 '0x041f' : "Turkish", '0x442' : "Turkmen", '0x480' : "Uighur - China", '0x422' : "Ukrainian", '0x420' : "Urdu", '0x820' : "Urdu - India", '0x843' : "Uzbek (Cyrillic)",
                 '0x443' : "Uzbek (Latin)", '0x433' : "Venda", '0x042a' : "Vietnamese", '0x452' : "Welsh", '0x434' : "Xhosa", '0x478' : "Yi", '0x043d' : "Yiddish", '0x046a' : "Yoruba",
                 '0x435' : "Zulu", '0x04ff' : "HID (Human Interface Device)"
                 }

    user32 = ctypes.WinDLL('user32', use_last_error=True)

    # Get the current active window handle
    handle = user32.GetForegroundWindow()

    # Get the thread id from that window handle
    threadid = user32.GetWindowThreadProcessId(handle, 0)

    # Get the keyboard layout id from the threadid
    layout_id = user32.GetKeyboardLayout(threadid)

    # Extract the keyboard language id from the keyboard layout id
    language_id = layout_id & (2 ** 16 - 1)

    # Convert the keyboard language id from decimal to hexadecimal
    language_id_hex = hex(language_id)

    # Check if the hex value is in the dictionary.
    if language_id_hex in languages.keys():
        return languages[language_id_hex]
    else:
        # Return language id hexadecimal value if not found.
        return str(language_id_hex)

Answer 2

The following approach, utilizing the ctypes library, works for me.

# My keyboard is set to the English - United States keyboard
>>> import ctypes
# For debugging Windows error codes in the current thread
>>> user32 = ctypes.WinDLL('user32', use_last_error=True)
>>> curr_window = user32.GetForegroundWindow()
>>> thread_id = user32.GetWindowThreadProcessId(curr_window, 0)
# Made up of 0xAAABBBB, AAA = HKL (handle object) & BBBB = language ID
>>> klid = user32.GetKeyboardLayout(thread_id)
67699721
# Language ID -> low 10 bits, Sub-language ID -> high 6 bits
# Extract language ID from KLID
>>> lid = klid & (2**16 - 1)
# Convert language ID from decimal to hexadecimal
>>> lid_hex = hex(lid)
'0x409'

# I switched my keyboard to the Russian keyboard
>>> curr_window = user32.GetForegroundWindow()
>>> thread_id = user32.GetWindowThreadProcessId(curr_window, 0)
>>> klid = user32.GetKeyboardLayout(thread_id)
68748313
# Extract language ID from KLID
>>> lid = klid & (2**16 - 1)
# Convert language ID from decimal to hexadecimal
>>> lid_hex = hex(lid)
'0x419'

You can follow the same procedure for Greek (0x408), or any other language you'd like to detect. If you're interested, here is a plain-text list and here is Microsoft's list of all the hexadecimal values that lid_hex could possibly take on, given an input language.

For your reference, LCIDs are stored in this format (as I described in comments of my code).

Just make sure that you are calling GetKeyboardLayout(thread_id) every time you switch languages on your keyboard.

EDIT:

As @furas mentioned in the comments, this is system-dependent. If you're going to port your code to an OS other than Windows 10 (maybe even earlier versions of Windows, if the LCIDs have changed since then), this approach won't work as expected.

EDIT 2:

My first explanation of klid wasn't correct, but thanks to @eryksun's comments I've corrected that.