How to make the Java.awt.Robot type unicode characters? (Is it possible?)

Question

We have a user provided string that may contain unicode characters, and we want the robot to type that string.

How do you convert a string into keyCodes that the robot will use?
How do you do it so it is also java version independant (1.3 -> 1.6)?

What we have working for "ascii" chars is

//char c = nextChar();
//char c = 'a'; // this works, and so does 'A'
char c = 'á'; // this doesn't, and neither does 'Ă'
Robot robot = new Robot();
KeyStroke key = KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("pressed " + Character.toUpperCase(c) );
if( null != key ) {
  // should only have to worry about case with standard characters
  if (Character.isUpperCase(c))
  {
    robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
  }

  robot.keyPress(key.getKeyCode());
  robot.keyRelease(key.getKeyCode());

  if (Character.isUpperCase(c))
  {
    robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
  }
}

@Yaocl That's certainly another way of getting info to something that accepts a 'paste', sometimes that is not available. — Greg Domjan, Aug 08 '14 at 15:59
See also http://stackoverflow.com/a/14766664/34088 for a good solution — Aaron Digulla, Dec 29 '14 at 17:05

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 23 '11 at 14:19

10

Based on javamonkey79's code I've created the following snippet which should work for all Unicode values...

public static void pressUnicode(Robot r, int key_code)
{
    r.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_ALT);

    for(int i = 3; i >= 0; --i)
    {
        // extracts a single decade of the key-code and adds
        // an offset to get the required VK_NUMPAD key-code
        int numpad_kc = key_code / (int) (Math.pow(10, i)) % 10 + KeyEvent.VK_NUMPAD0;

        r.keyPress(numpad_kc);
        r.keyRelease(numpad_kc);
    }

    r.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_ALT);
}

This automatically goes through each decade of the unicode key-code, maps it to the corresponding VK_NUMPAD equivalent and presses/releases the keys accordingly.

answered Feb 23 '11 at 14:19

Wolfgang Steiner

149
2
5

2

No, this solution relies on the Windows-only (AFAIK) method of using Alt+Numpad to enter unicode characters. – Luke H Feb 16 '14 at 21:25
@LukeH - for Mac I just found - First go to international system preferences-> input menu and check the box next to "Unicode hex". then switch to unicode input in the menu bar. now to enter a unicode character you hold option(alt) and enter the hexadecimal unicode value. [Apple discussions](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1899290?tstart=0) – Greg Domjan Aug 08 '14 at 16:05
For linux - Hold down 'ctrl' & 'shift' the entire time while entering the character. While holding them down, press 'U' then the 4 digit octal code for the character. https://pthree.org/2006/11/30/its-unicode-baby/ – Greg Domjan Aug 08 '14 at 16:10
Beware that AltCodes do not support full unicode set, but only characters in IBM437 (ALT nnn) and Windows-1252 (ALT 0nnn) character sets -- see e.g. [here](https://altcodeunicode.com/). It is possible to enable full unicode support via "ALT" "+" "nnnn" (see e.g. [here](https://superuser.com/a/1024956/534074)). YMMV – vlp Oct 29 '19 at 15:51

javamonkey79 · Answer 2 · 2008-12-29T05:35:17.830

The KeyEvent Class does not have direct mappings for many unicode classes in JRE 1.5. If you are running this on a Windows box what you may have to do is write a custom handler that does something like this:

Robot robot = new Robot();
char curChar = 'Ã';

// -- isUnicode( char ) should be pretty easy to figure out
if ( isUnicode( curChar ) ) {
   // -- this is an example, exact key combinations will vary
   robot.keyPress( KeyEvent.VK_ALT );

   robot.keyPress( KeyEvent.VK_NUMBER_SIGN );
   robot.keyRelease( KeyEvent.VK_NUMBER_SIGN );

   // -- have to apply some logic to know what sequence
   robot.keyPress( KeyEvent.VK_0 );
   robot.keyRelease( KeyEvent.VK_0 );
   robot.keyPress( KeyEvent.VK_1 );
   robot.keyRelease( KeyEvent.VK_1 );
   robot.keyPress( KeyEvent.VK_9 );
   robot.keyRelease( KeyEvent.VK_9 );
   robot.keyPress( KeyEvent.VK_5 );
   robot.keyRelease( KeyEvent.VK_5 );

   robot.keyRelease( KeyEvent.VK_ALT );
}

e.g. Figure out what they key combinations are, and then map them to some sort of Object (maybe a HashMap?) for later lookup and execution.

Hope this helps :)

Ouchie, I was hoping for simpler, but this will certainly help. — Greg Domjan, Dec 29 '08 at 06:07
I've found that you don't need KeyEvent.VK_NUMBER_SIGN. Also that the numbers need to be entered as if by the numpad, ie. KeyEvent.VK_NUMPAD0. — Greg Domjan, Dec 30 '08 at 01:05
@Greg: I figured you'd have to play with the exact configuration to get it right. Just a suggestion but you can also try converting the char to an int then to a String then a char array such that you can parse through each one ... just a thought. — javamonkey79, Dec 31 '08 at 05:36

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 06 '10 at 22:16

0

i think this is a bit late but...

Robot robot = new Robot();

   robot.keyPress( KeyEvent.VK_DEAD_ACUTE);

   robot.keyPress( KeyEvent.VK_A );
   robot.keyRelease( KeyEvent.VK_A );

   robot.keyRelease( KeyEvent.VK_DEAD_ACUTE );

that just type an "á"

answered Apr 06 '10 at 22:16

hecvd

659
1
8
24

This did not work for me on Linux. It types just the letter, no acute. – MightyPork May 29 '14 at 09:22
that just works for the current keyboard layout and for some languages that have deadkey on the keyboard – phuclv Jan 16 '15 at 12:30

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 20 '12 at 19:20

The best way that i find when solve simulare problem

import java.awt.AWTException;
import java.awt.Robot;

public class MyRobot {

    public static void typeString(String s)
        {
            try {
            Robot robik = new Robot();
            byte[] bytes = s.getBytes();
            for (byte b : bytes)
            {
                int code = b;
                // keycode only handles [A-Z] (which is ASCII decimal [65-90])
                if (code > 96 && code < 123) code = code - 32;
                robik.delay(40);
                robik.keyPress(code);
                robik.keyRelease(code);
            }
        } catch (AWTException e){

    }
  }

}

http://www.devdaily.com/java/java-robot-class-example-mouse-keystroke\

Thanks, nice neat layout for dealing with ascii characters, but doesn't cover the issue of unicode which was the main point. — Greg Domjan, Jun 21 '12 at 06:01

How to make the Java.awt.Robot type unicode characters? (Is it possible?)

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