key - Pygame Documentation

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pygame.key

pygame module to work with the keyboard

pygame.key.get_focused - true if the display is receiving keyboard input from the system | true if the display is receiving keyboard input from the system
pygame.key.get_pressed - get the state of all keyboard buttons | get the state of all keyboard buttons
pygame.key.get_mods - determine which modifier keys are being held | determine which modifier keys are being held
pygame.key.set_mods - temporarily set which modifier keys are pressed | temporarily set which modifier keys are pressed
pygame.key.set_repeat - control how held keys are repeated | control how held keys are repeated
pygame.key.get_repeat - see how held keys are repeated | see how held keys are repeated
pygame.key.name - get the name of a key identifier | get the name of a key identifier

This module contains functions for dealing with the keyboard.

The event queue gets `pygame.KEYDOWN` and `pygame.KEYUP` events when the keyboard buttons are pressed and released. Both events have a key attribute that is a integer id representing every key on the keyboard.

The `pygame.KEYDOWN` event has an additional attributes unicode, and scancode. unicode represents a single character string that is the fully translated character entered. This takes into account the shift and composition keys. scancode represents the platform specific key code. This could be different from keyboard to keyboard, but is useful for key selection of weird keys like the multimedia keys.

There are many keyboard constants, they are used to represent keys on the keyboard. The following is a list of all keyboard constants

          KeyASCII      ASCII   Common Name
          K_BACKSPACE   \b      backspace
          K_TAB         \t      tab
          K_CLEAR               clear
          K_RETURN      \r      return
          K_PAUSE               pause
          K_ESCAPE      ^[      escape
          K_SPACE               space
          K_EXCLAIM     !       exclaim
          K_QUOTEDBL    "       quotedbl
          K_HASH        #       hash
          K_DOLLAR      $       dollar
          K_AMPERSAND   &       ampersand
          K_QUOTE               quote
          K_LEFTPAREN   (       left parenthesis
          K_RIGHTPAREN  )       right parenthesis
          K_ASTERISK    *       asterisk
          K_PLUS        +       plus sign
          K_COMMA       ,       comma
          K_MINUS       -       minus sign
          K_PERIOD      .       period
          K_SLASH       /       forward slash
          K_0           0       0
          K_1           1       1
          K_2           2       2
          K_3           3       3
          K_4           4       4
          K_5           5       5
          K_6           6       6
          K_7           7       7
          K_8           8       8
          K_9           9       9
          K_COLON       :       colon
          K_SEMICOLON   ;       semicolon
          K_LESS        <       less-than sign
          K_EQUALS      =       equals sign
          K_GREATER     >       greater-than sign
          K_QUESTION    ?       question mark
          K_AT          @       at
          K_LEFTBRACKET [       left bracket
          K_BACKSLASH   \       backslash
          K_RIGHTBRACKET ]      right bracket
          K_CARET       ^       caret
          K_UNDERSCORE  _       underscore
          K_BACKQUOTE   `       grave
          K_a           a       a
          K_b           b       b
          K_c           c       c
          K_d           d       d
          K_e           e       e
          K_f           f       f
          K_g           g       g
          K_h           h       h
          K_i           i       i
          K_j           j       j
          K_k           k       k
          K_l           l       l
          K_m           m       m
          K_n           n       n
          K_o           o       o
          K_p           p       p
          K_q           q       q
          K_r           r       r
          K_s           s       s
          K_t           t       t
          K_u           u       u
          K_v           v       v
          K_w           w       w
          K_x           x       x
          K_y           y       y
          K_z           z       z
          K_DELETE              delete
          K_KP0                 keypad 0
          K_KP1                 keypad 1
          K_KP2                 keypad 2
          K_KP3                 keypad 3
          K_KP4                 keypad 4
          K_KP5                 keypad 5
          K_KP6                 keypad 6
          K_KP7                 keypad 7
          K_KP8                 keypad 8
          K_KP9                 keypad 9
          K_KP_PERIOD   .       keypad period
          K_KP_DIVIDE   /       keypad divide
          K_KP_MULTIPLY *       keypad multiply
          K_KP_MINUS    -       keypad minus
          K_KP_PLUS     +       keypad plus
          K_KP_ENTER    \r      keypad enter
          K_KP_EQUALS   =       keypad equals
          K_UP                  up arrow
          K_DOWN                down arrow
          K_RIGHT               right arrow
          K_LEFT                left arrow
          K_INSERT              insert
          K_HOME                home
          K_END                 end
          K_PAGEUP              page up
          K_PAGEDOWN            page down
          K_F1                  F1
          K_F2                  F2
          K_F3                  F3
          K_F4                  F4
          K_F5                  F5
          K_F6                  F6
          K_F7                  F7
          K_F8                  F8
          K_F9                  F9
          K_F10                 F10
          K_F11                 F11
          K_F12                 F12
          K_F13                 F13
          K_F14                 F14
          K_F15                 F15
          K_NUMLOCK             numlock
          K_CAPSLOCK            capslock
          K_SCROLLOCK           scrollock
          K_RSHIFT              right shift
          K_LSHIFT              left shift
          K_RCTRL               right ctrl
          K_LCTRL               left ctrl
          K_RALT                right alt
          K_LALT                left alt
          K_RMETA               right meta
          K_LMETA               left meta
          K_LSUPER              left windows key
          K_RSUPER              right windows key
          K_MODE                mode shift
          K_HELP                help
          K_PRINT               print screen
          K_SYSREQ              sysrq
          K_BREAK               break
          K_MENU                menu
          K_POWER               power
          K_EURO                euro

The keyboard also has a list of modifier states that can be assembled bit bitwise ORing them together.

          KMOD_NONE, KMOD_LSHIFT, KMOD_RSHIFT, KMOD_SHIFT, KMOD_CAPS,
          KMOD_LCTRL, KMOD_RCTRL, KMOD_CTRL, KMOD_LALT, KMOD_RALT,
          KMOD_ALT, KMOD_LMETA, KMOD_RMETA, KMOD_META, KMOD_NUM, KMOD_MODE

pygame.key.get_focused

true if the display is receiving keyboard input from the system
`pygame.key.get_focused(): return bool`

This is true when the display window has keyboard focus from the system. If the display needs to ensure it does not lose keyboard focus, it can use `pygame.event.set_grab - control the sharing of input devices with other applications` to grab all input.

pygame.key.get_pressed

get the state of all keyboard buttons
`pygame.key.get_pressed(): return bools`

Returns a sequence of boolean values representing the state of every key on the keyboard. Use the key constant values to index the array. `A` True value means the that button is pressed.

Getting the list of pushed buttons with this function is not the proper way to handle text entry from the user. You have no way to know the order of keys pressed, and rapidly pushed keys can be completely unnoticed between two calls to `pygame.key.get_pressed - get the state of all keyboard buttons`. There is also no way to translate these pushed keys into a fully translated character value. See the `pygame.KEYDOWN` events on the event queue for this functionality.

pygame.key.get_mods

determine which modifier keys are being held
`pygame.key.get_mods(): return int`

Returns a single integer representing a bitmask of all the modifier keys being held. Using bitwise operators you can test if specific shift keys are pressed, the state of the capslock button, and more.

pygame.key.set_mods

temporarily set which modifier keys are pressed
`pygame.key.set_mods(int): return None`

Create a bitmask of the modifier constants you want to impose on your program.

pygame.key.set_repeat

control how held keys are repeated
`pygame.key.set_repeat(): return None`
`pygame.key.set_repeat(delay, interval): return None`

When the keyboard repeat is enabled, keys that are held down will generate multiple `pygame.KEYDOWN` events. The delay is the number of milliseconds before the first repeated `pygame.KEYDOWN` will be sent. After that another `pygame.KEYDOWN` will be sent every interval milliseconds. If no arguments are passed the key repeat is disabled.

When pygame is initialized the key repeat is disabled.

pygame.key.get_repeat

see how held keys are repeated
`pygame.key.get_repeat(): return (delay, interval)`

When the keyboard repeat is enabled, keys that are held down will generate multiple `pygame.KEYDOWN` events. The delay is the number of milliseconds before the first repeated `pygame.KEYDOWN` will be sent. After that another `pygame.KEYDOWN` will be sent every interval milliseconds.

When pygame is initialized the key repeat is disabled.

New in pygame `1.8`.

pygame.key.name

get the name of a key identifier
`pygame.key.name(key): return string`

Get the descriptive name of the button from a keyboard button id constant.