CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++
Guy zvi
Guy zvi

Reputation: 77

Press a keyboard key by his char value C++

I would like to write a function that receives a char and presses it on the keyboard.

void pressKey(const char key){
        INPUT ip;
        ip.type = INPUT_KEYBOARD;
        ip.ki.wScan = 0; 
        ip.ki.time = 0;
        ip.ki.dwExtraInfo = 0;
        ip.ki.wVk  = //What to put here? (receives WORD of the hex value)
        ip.ki.dwFlags = 0;
        SendInput(1, &ip, sizeof(INPUT));
}

How can I press the key 'a' (for example) and press it using this method or any other method?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 424

Answers (1)

Remy Lebeau
Remy Lebeau

Reputation: 596397

When simulating keyboard input for text, you should use the KEYEVENTF_UNICODE flag to send Unicode characters as-is, use virtual key codes only for non-textual keys. And you need to send 2 input events per character, one event to press the key down, and one event to release it.

For example:

void pressKey(const char key){
    INPUT ip[2] = {};

    ip[0].type = INPUT_KEYBOARD;
    ip[0].ki.wScan = key;
    ip[0].ki. dwFlags = KEYEVENTF_UNICODE;

    ip[1] = ip[0];
    ip[1].ki.dwFlags |= KEYEVENTF_KEYUP;

    SendInput(2, ip, sizeof(INPUT));
}

That being said, since this approach requires Unicode characters, if your key will ever contain a non-ASCII character then you will need to first convert it to Unicode UTF-16, such as with MultiByteToWideChar() or equivalent, and then you can send down/up events for each UTF-16 codeunit, as shown in this answer.

Upvotes: 1

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