Arrow Keys In Python

Hello Everyone!

Welcome back to another tutorial!

I usually try to make tutorials not in Python. I think that I can let this one slide in, though.

Contents

• Curses (Python Module)
• Detecting The Keys
• Final Code
• Ending

Curses (Python Module)

Do not be afraid! This module won't actually curse you. Anyways, to import the module, use import curses. Everytime you use curses, you must do curses.initscr(). You can turn it into a variable to save time. That will show the screen.

Keypad

If you do not use the keypad, you would see some weird computer codes. You must use curses.initscr().keypad(). What goes inside the () is either 1 (true) or 0 (false). In order to start the arrow keys, use:

# Importing The Curses Module
import curses

# Making The Screen
screen = curses.initscr()
# Allowing The Keypad
screen.keypad(1)

Detecting The Keys

Using input will not work. You must use curses.initscr().getch(). That's long, right? Anyways, once you have done that, you have the key codes. For the up arrow key, do curses.KEY_UP. For the down arrow key, use curses.KEY_DOWN. I think you know what the other 2 arrow key codes are. You might possibly have:

arrow_key = curses.initscr().getch()
if arrow_key == curses.KEY_UP:
  print("Up")
else:
  print("Not up")

Final Code

import curses

arrow_key = curses.initscr().getch()

if arrow_key == curses.KEY_UP:
  print("Up")
elif arrow_key == curses.KEY_DOWN:
  print("Down")
elif arrow_key == curses.KEY_RIGHT:
  print("Right")
elif arrow_key == curses.KEY_LEFT:
  print("Left")
else:
  print("Not an arrow key")

Ending

Anyways, I hope this tutorial helped you. Please leave an upvote if it did. That's it for now...

Bye

P.S Check out my other arrow key tutorials:
Javascript and C++