C# Making it so the Enter Key behaves as if a button has been pressed

Question

How do I code it so that when the enter key has been pressed it behaves as if a button on the existing form has been pressed?

Let's say the button on the form makes it so a display message of hello shows up

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

How do I make it so when the enter key is pressed it does the same thing (for the life of me I can't remember and it's probably really simple and I'm being really dumb)

You should look at the [`KeyUp`](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.uielement.keyup.aspx) event — Harrison, Oct 24 '13 at 18:14
possible duplicate of [How do I tell when the enter key is pressed in a TextBox?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11806166/how-do-i-tell-when-the-enter-key-is-pressed-in-a-textbox) — Harrison, Oct 24 '13 at 18:16

Idle_Mind · Answer 1 · 2020-11-16T13:23:04.873

26

WinForms? If yes, select the FORM. Now in the Properties Pane (bottom right of the screen by default) change the AcceptButton property to "buttonHello".

See Form.AcceptButton:

Gets or sets the button on the form that is clicked when the user presses the ENTER key.

Here's what it looks like in the Properties Pane:

edited Nov 16 '20 at 13:23

answered Oct 24 '13 at 18:14

Idle_Mind

38,363
3
29
40

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 24 '13 at 18:14

9

Capture the Enter key down event, like this:

private void Form1_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e) 
{
    if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter){
        button.PerformClick();
    }
}

answered Oct 24 '13 at 18:14

Karl Anderson

34,606
12
65
80

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 16 '18 at 03:19

4

In your Form properties, set AcceptButton = yourButton, That's it.

answered Dec 16 '18 at 03:19

Óûth Mânē

59
1
8

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 24 '13 at 18:14

1

add a Key Down event handler to your form. Then check if the enter key has been pressed

private void form_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if(e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
        buttonHello.PerformClick();
}

answered Oct 24 '13 at 18:14

Jonesopolis

25,034
12
68
112

This doesn't seem to work for some reason. Is that code to put focus to this command because I have a bunch of other code to be performed. – user2867035 Oct 24 '13 at 18:38
form would have to have focus when the enter key is pressed – Jonesopolis Oct 24 '13 at 18:39
did you add the event to the form? – Jonesopolis Oct 24 '13 at 18:49
you need to attach it. `form.KeyDown += form_KeyDown;` in your constructor – Jonesopolis Oct 24 '13 at 18:56

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 22 '19 at 11:43

For WinForms:

using System.Windows.Forms; // reference

private void Form1_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e) 
{
    if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
    {
        // do something
    }
}

For WPF:

using System.Windows.Input; // reference

private void Window_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Key == Key.Enter)
    {
        // do something
    }
}

Notes

This example is for Enter button, you can easy change that changing Keys.YOURKEY.
You need to add first the event in your form or window.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 24 '13 at 18:14

0

Are you looking for something like this:-

private void tb_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e) 
{
    if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)        
        button.PerformClick();
}

answered Oct 24 '13 at 18:14

Rahul Tripathi

168,305
31
280
331

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 24 '13 at 18:18

You are driving toward the "Magic Button" antipattern, and the symptom is that you want to drive the butto from somewhere else. Insulate the behavior you want from the button in some way ( a member function could work ) and then call the same function from any point you like. If you really just want to reply to the enter key, best way is, as suggested by @Idle_mind, use the AcceptButton.

C# Making it so the Enter Key behaves as if a button has been pressed

7 Answers7