Keyboard

Module

An intrinsic object that represents the current state of the keyboard. A convenient place to test for keyboard events is the Action event of a Timer.

Methods

Keyname

Notes

The Keyboard module is used to determine if particular keys are being pressed. The async version of each keyboard property tells you the immediate state of the key. If you want to know the state of the key when an event was queued, you should use the non-async version of the properties. These properties are updated constantly during code execution.

Windows

You can pass raw Win32 key codes to AsyncKeyDown. Add 1 to the raw keyCode and put it in the high word of the Integer you are passing. For example:

Keyboard.AsyncKeyDown((rawKeyCode + 1) * &hFFFF)

The "regular" way of detecting a particular keyCode, illustrated by the first example in the Examples section, also works for Windows.

KeyCodes

The following tables give the keycodes for the US keyboard. Keyboards for other languages may differ. These values are given in hex. You can pass values in another base if you wish. See the Examples section for examples that use Decimal and Hex values.

The AsyncKeyDown property returns True when the keycode passed to it is pressed.

Letters of the alphabet

Key	KeyCode (hex value)
a	00
b	0B
c	08
d	02
e	0E
f	03
g	05
h	04
i	22
j	26
k	28
l	25
m	2E
n	2D
o	1F
p	23
q	0C
r	0F
s	01
t	11
u	20
v	09
w	0D
x	07
y	10
z	06

Numbers

Key	KeyCode (hex value)
0	1D
1	12
2	13
3	14
4	15
5	17
6	16
7	1A
8	1C
9	19

Function and special keys

Key	KeyCode (hex value)
F1	7A
F2	78
F3	63
F4	76
F5	60
F6	61
F7	62
F8	64
F9	65
F10	6D
F11	67
F12	6F
F13	69
F14	6B
F15	71
ESC	35
Space	31
Tab	30
Return	24
Home	73
Backspace	33
End	77
Page Up	74
Page Down	79
Delete	75
Help	72
Left	7B
Right	7C
Up	7E
Down	7D
=	18
–	1B
[	21
]	1E
\	2A
'	32
'	27
;	29
/	2C
,	2B
.	2F
,	2B

Numeric Keypad codes

Key	KeyCode (hex value)
1	53
2	54
3	55
4	56
5	57
6	58
7	59
8	5B
9	5C
0	52
+	45
–	4E
/	4B
*	43
Enter	4C
.	41
Clear	47

Sample Code

The following code tests whether the key for the letter "A" was pressed:

If Keyboard.AsynckeyDown(&h00) Then
// do something with this key here
End If

This code monitors the arrow keys and detects when an arrow key is pressed. Base 10 values are passed. Place this code in the Action event of a Timer and it will monitor the keyboard continuously.

If Keyboard.AsyncKeyDown(123) Then
// do something with the left arrow key
End If
If Keyboard.AsyncKeyDown(124) Then
// do something with the right arrow key...
End If
If Keyboard.AsyncKeyDown(125) Then
// do something with the down arrow key...
End If
If Keyboard.AsyncKeyDown(126) Then
// do something with the Up arrow key...
End If