page.title=Handling Keyboard Actions

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<h2>This lesson teaches you to</h2>
<ol>
  <li><a href="#SingleKey">Handle Single Key Events</a></li>
  <li><a href="#ModifierKey">Handle Modifier Keys</a></li>
</ol>

</div>
</div>


<p>When the user gives focus to an editable text view such as an {@link android.widget.EditText}
element and the user has a hardware keyboard attached, all
input is handled by the system. If, however, you'd like to intercept
or directly handle the keyboard input yourself, you can do so by implementing callback methods
from the {@link android.view.KeyEvent.Callback} interface, such as {@link
android.view.KeyEvent.Callback#onKeyDown onKeyDown()} and {@link
android.view.KeyEvent.Callback#onKeyMultiple onKeyMultiple()}.</p>

<p>Both the {@link
android.app.Activity} and {@link android.view.View} class implement the
{@link android.view.KeyEvent.Callback} interface, so you
should generally override the callback methods in your extension of these classes as
appropriate.</p>

<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> When handling keyboard events with the {@link
android.view.KeyEvent} class and related APIs, you should expect that such keyboard
events come only from a hardware keyboard. You should never rely on receiving key events
for any key on a soft input method (an on-screen keyboard).</p>


<h2 id="SingleKey">Handle Single Key Events</h2>

<p>To handle an individual key press, implement {@link
android.app.Activity#onKeyDown onKeyDown()} or {@link
android.app.Activity#onKeyUp onKeyUp()} as appropriate. Usually, you should
use {@link android.app.Activity#onKeyUp onKeyUp()} if you want to be sure that you receive
only one event. If the user presses and holds the button, then {@link
android.app.Activity#onKeyDown onKeyDown()} is called multiple times.</p>

<p>For example, this implementation responds to some keyboard keys to control a game:</p>

<pre>
&#64;Override
public boolean onKeyUp(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
    switch (keyCode) {
        case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_D:
            moveShip(MOVE_LEFT);
            return true;
        case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_F:
            moveShip(MOVE_RIGHT);
            return true;
        case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_J:
            fireMachineGun();
            return true;
        case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_K:
            fireMissile();
            return true;
        default:
            return super.onKeyUp(keyCode, event);
    }
}
</pre>


<h2 id="ModifierKey">Handle Modifier Keys</h2>

<p>To respond to modifier key events such as when a key is combined with Shift or Control, you can
query the {@link android.view.KeyEvent} that's passed to the callback method. Several methods
provide information about modifier keys such as {@link android.view.KeyEvent#getModifiers()}
and {@link android.view.KeyEvent#getMetaState()}. However, the simplest solution is to check whether
the exact modifier key you care about is being pressed with methods such as
{@link android.view.KeyEvent#isShiftPressed()} and {@link android.view.KeyEvent#isCtrlPressed()}.
</p>

<p>For example, here's the {@link android.app.Activity#onKeyDown onKeyDown()} implementation
again, with some extra handling for when the Shift key is held down with one of the keys:</p>

<pre>
&#64;Override
public boolean onKeyUp(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
    switch (keyCode) {
        ...
        case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_J:
            if (event.isShiftPressed()) {
                fireLaser();
            } else {
                fireMachineGun();
            }
            return true;
        case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_K:
            if (event.isShiftPressed()) {
                fireSeekingMissle();
            } else {
                fireMissile();
            }
            return true;
        default:
            return super.onKeyUp(keyCode, event);
    }
}
</pre>