How do you simulate Mouse Click in C#?

Question

How do you simulate Mouse clicks in C# winforms applications?

Answer 1

I have combined several sources to produce the code below, which I am currently using. I have also removed the Windows.Forms references so I can use it from console and WPF applications without additional references.

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

public class MouseOperations
{
    [Flags]
    public enum MouseEventFlags
    {
        LeftDown = 0x00000002,
        LeftUp = 0x00000004,
        MiddleDown = 0x00000020,
        MiddleUp = 0x00000040,
        Move = 0x00000001,
        Absolute = 0x00008000,
        RightDown = 0x00000008,
        RightUp = 0x00000010
    }

    [DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "SetCursorPos")]
    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
    private static extern bool SetCursorPos(int x, int y);      

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
    private static extern bool GetCursorPos(out MousePoint lpMousePoint);

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern void mouse_event(int dwFlags, int dx, int dy, int dwData, int dwExtraInfo);

    public static void SetCursorPosition(int x, int y) 
    {
        SetCursorPos(x, y);
    }

    public static void SetCursorPosition(MousePoint point)
    {
        SetCursorPos(point.X, point.Y);
    }

    public static MousePoint GetCursorPosition()
    {
        MousePoint currentMousePoint;
        var gotPoint = GetCursorPos(out currentMousePoint);
        if (!gotPoint) { currentMousePoint = new MousePoint(0, 0); }
        return currentMousePoint;
    }

    public static void MouseEvent(MouseEventFlags value)
    {
        MousePoint position = GetCursorPosition();

        mouse_event
            ((int)value,
             position.X,
             position.Y,
             0,
             0)
            ;
    }

    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
    public struct MousePoint
    {
        public int X;
        public int Y;

        public MousePoint(int x, int y)
        {
            X = x;
            Y = y;
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

An example I found somewhere here in the past. Might be of some help:

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

public class Form1 : Form
{
   [DllImport("user32.dll",CharSet=CharSet.Auto, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.StdCall)]
   public static extern void mouse_event(uint dwFlags, uint dx, uint dy, uint cButtons, uint dwExtraInfo);
   //Mouse actions
   private const int MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN = 0x02;
   private const int MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP = 0x04;
   private const int MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTDOWN = 0x08;
   private const int MOUSEEVENTF_RIGHTUP = 0x10;

   public Form1()
   {
   }

   public void DoMouseClick()
   {
      //Call the imported function with the cursor's current position
      uint X = (uint)Cursor.Position.X;
      uint Y = (uint)Cursor.Position.Y;
      mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN | MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP, X, Y, 0, 0);
   }

   //...other code needed for the application
}

Answer 3

Some controls, like Button in System.Windows.Forms, have a "PerformClick" method to do just that.

Answer 4

Mouse.Click();

Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITesting

Answer 5

I have tried the code that Marcos posted and it didn't worked for me. Whatever i was given to the Y coordinate the cursor didn't moved on Y axis. The code below will work if you want the position of the cursor relative to the left-up corner of your desktop, not relative to your application.

    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern void mouse_event(long dwFlags, long dx, long dy, long cButtons, long dwExtraInfo);
    private const int MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN = 0x02;
    private const int MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP = 0x04;
    private const int MOUSEEVENTF_MOVE = 0x0001;

    public void DoMouseClick()
    {
        X = Cursor.Position.X;
        Y = Cursor.Position.Y;

        //move to coordinates
        pt = (Point)pc.ConvertFromString(X + "," + Y);
        Cursor.Position = pt;       

        //perform click            
        mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN, 0, 0, 0, 0);
        mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP, 0, 0, 0, 0);
    }

I only use mouse_event function to actually perform the click. You can give X and Y what coordinates you want, i used values from textbox:

            X = Convert.ToInt32(tbX.Text);
            Y = Convert.ToInt32(tbY.Text);

Answer 6

I use the InvokeOnClick() method. It takes two arguments: Control and EventArgs. If you need the EventArgs, then create an instance of it and pass it in, else use InvokeOnClick(controlToClick, null);. You can use a variety of Mouse event related arguments that derive from EventArgs such as MouseEventArgs.

Answer 7

they are some needs i can't see to dome thing like Keith or Marcos Placona did instead of just doing

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WFsimulateMouseClick
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            button1_Click(button1, new MouseEventArgs(System.Windows.Forms.MouseButtons.Left, 1, 1, 1, 1));

            //by the way
            //button1.PerformClick();
            // and
            //button1_Click(button1, new EventArgs());
            // are the same
        }

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("clicked");
        }
    }
}