Android - How to convert KeyEvent KeyCode to Char?

Question

I want to get the char value of the KeyCode Event when pressing an Android keyboard.

public void KeyCodeEventAsChar(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {

  char pressedKey;

  // TODO: convert key Code Event into char

  syslog.d ("TEST", "The pressed key in Android keyboard was char: " + pressedKey);

}

Does anyone has a clue how to do this?!

UPDATE:

I don't want hardcoded text! I want to convert it to correspondent char!

UPDATE 2:

I need also to dead chars such as: à, á, ò, ó, etc...

ANSWER FOUND:

// TODO: convert key Code Event into char
char pressedKey = (char) event.getUnicodeChar();

IMPORTANT NOTE: char has only 1 byte length, so it will not support several chars

in Java `char` is UTF-16, so it can keep all the [Basic Multilingual Plane](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_%28Unicode%29#Basic_Multilingual_Plane) — bigstones, Aug 12 '12 at 18:17

score 12 · Answer 1 · answered May 17 '12 at 14:18

12

> I had already answered updating the question

// TODO: convert key Code Event into char
char pressedKey = (char) event.getUnicodeChar();

IMPORTANT NOTE: char has only 1 byte length, so it will not support several chars

Hope it help you somehow

answered May 17 '12 at 14:18

Jorge

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just a note: in java char has 2 bytes – bughi Dec 04 '13 at 13:58

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 31 '15 at 17:55

In order to test the Answer Found you can do this:

@Override
public boolean onKeyUp(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {

    char pressedKey = (char) event.getUnicodeChar();

    Log.d("onKeyUp is: ", Character.toString(pressedKey));


    return super.onKeyUp(keyCode, event);

}

And the letter that you pressed should appear in the logcat

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered May 16 '12 at 14:06

3

You can use KeyEvent.getDisplayLabel() to get the primary character for the key. In other words, the label that is physically printed on it.

answered May 16 '12 at 14:06

Diego Torres Milano

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I need also to dead chars such as: à, á, ò, ó, etc... – Jorge May 16 '12 at 14:33

score 1 · Answer 4 · edited May 16 '12 at 13:07

1

You have to check which key is getting pressed like this

if(keyCode  == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_ENTER){

syslog.d ("TEST", "The pressed key in Android keyboard was Enter" );
}

Here is the link where you find all the KeyEvents

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/KeyEvent.html

edited May 16 '12 at 13:07

Chris Stratton

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answered May 16 '12 at 12:34

Sachin Gurnani

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@SachinGurnami I don't want that hardcoded. For int event=KeyEvent.KEYCODE_G, i can translate that to "G"! – Jorge May 16 '12 at 13:53
then use keyEvent.getUnicodeChar(); – Sachin Gurnani May 17 '12 at 05:04

Its not blank · Answer 5 · 2012-05-17T03:14:00.830

KEYCODE_XX is an int

You can have a method that has keycode as parameter and use switch case in it to do specifc task. like below,

void getEvent(KeyEvent keyEvent){

    char pressedKey = (char) keyEvent.getUnicodeChar();

    switch(pressedKey){
        case A://
        syslog.d ("TEST", "The pressed key in Android keyboard was Enter" );
        //DO what you wnat with this event
        break;
        case B:
        syslog.d ("TEST", "The pressed key in Android keyboard was B" );
        //DO what you wnat with this event
        break;
        // so on to check other keys
    }
}

This way you can use Unicode to get corresponding values and you can use this with key listener to get events continuously

@Vincent... I don't want that hardcoded. For int event=KeyEvent.KEYCODE_G, i can translate that to "G"! — Jorge, May 16 '12 at 13:52

Android - How to convert KeyEvent KeyCode to Char?

5 Answers5