Skip to content
← Back to Community
GetKeys tutorial (Python)
Profile icon
MuffinsTheCat

How to use GetKeys

What is GetKeys?

GetKeys is a Python module that allows you to detect a user input without them having to press enter afterwards.

Importing

Write from getkeys import getkeys, keys to import getkeys and an extra feature

Key detection

To detect a key being pushed, write k = getkey(). Note that the program will not continue until a key is pressed

Using k

Basic characters

For characters such as letters, numbers, symbols and spaces, write this after k = getkey():

if k == "a": #change the a to whatever you want
  #Stuff goes here
else:
  #Stuff goes here

Or to make it non-case-sensitive:

if k == "a" or "A":
  #Stuff goes here
else:
  #Stuff goes here

Other characters

For escape, backspace, delete, enter, tab, home, end, insert and the arrow keys it is a little bit different.

if k == keys.ENTER: #Change the ENTER to one of the keys above. It must be capitalized and not abbreviated (eg. ESC and DEL should be ESCAPE and DELETE
  #Stuff goes here
else:
  #Stuff goes here

Extras

You can also use elif to detect which key is pressed. For example:

if k == "a":
  #Stuff goes here
elif k == "b":
  #Stuff goes here
else:
  print("Must press [a] or [b]!")

Thank you for taking this tutorial. Have a great day! 😀

1 year ago
Voters
Profile icon
G0RG3
Profile icon
Th3Coder
Profile icon
IntellectualGuy
Profile icon
MuffinsTheCat
Comments
hotnewtop
Profile icon
Bookie0

Screen Shot 2021-03-17 at 3.21.42 PM

You can add syntax highlighting to your code blocks by adding py after the 3 backslashes (`):

if k == "a": #change the a to whatever you want
  #Stuff goes here
else:
  #Stuff goes here

if k == "a" or "A":

Isn't it if k == "a" or key == "A":?

Also, you can use getch,getch():

from getch import getch

char = getch.getch()

if char.lower() == "a": # for letters
  print("You pressed the \'a\' key")

elif char == "1": # numbers
  print("You pressed the \'1\' key")

elif char == ",": # symbols
  print("You pressed the \',\' key")

 # you can use ord to check the ascii values of keys like enter, tab, backspace, etc.
elif ord(char) == 9: # tab
   print("You pressed the \'tab\' key")

:D

1 year ago
Profile icon
MuffinsTheCat

@Bookie0 For

if k == "a" or "b":

Without adding the name of the object again it checks if the object key has either a or b as it's value.

1 year ago
Profile icon
Bookie0

@MuffinsTheCat oh hm

1 year ago