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Lesson 38: Keyboard Handling

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In previous lessons, we have only learned how to trigger events or control program flow by clicking the mouse. In this lesson, you will
learn how to use the keyboard to trigger an event using the keyboard beside using the mouse. When the user presses a key on the
keyboard, it will trigger an event or a series of events. These events are called the keyboard events. In Visual Basic, the three basic
event procedure to handle the keyboard events are KeyPress, Keydown and KeyUp

38.1 ASCII
The keyboard event occurs when the user presses any key that corresponds to a certain alphanumeric value or an action such as
Enter, spacing, backspace and more. Each of those value or action is represented by a set of code known as the ASCII . ASCII stands
for American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Computers can only understand numbers, so an ASCII code is
the numerical representation of a character such as 'a' or '@' or an action of some sort. ASCII was developed a long time ago and now
the non-printing characters are rarely used for their original purpose. In order to write code for the Keyboard events , we need to know
the ASCII and the corresponding values. Some of the common ASCII values are shown in Table 38.1.

Table 38.1: ASCII Values

ASCII Chr ASCII Chr ASCII Chr

8 Backspace 61 = 98 b

Carriage Return or
13 62 > 99 c
Enter key

32 Space 63 ? 100 d

33 ! 64 @ 101 e

34 " 65 A 102 f

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37 % 68 D 105 i

38 & 69 E 106 j

39 ' 70 F 107 k

40 ( 71 G 108 l

41 ) 72 H 109 m

42 * 73 I 110 n

43 + 74 J 111 o

44 , 75 K 112 p

45 - 76 L 113 q

46 . 77 M 114 r

47 / 78 N 115 s

48 0 79 O 116 t

49 1 80 P 117 u

50 2 81 Q 118 v

51 3 82 R 119 w

52 4 83 S 120 x

53 5 84 T 121 y

54 6 85 U 122 z

55 7 86 V 123 {

56 8 87 W 124 |

57 9 88 X 125 }

58 : 89 Y 126 ~

59 ; 90 Z 127 DEL

60 < 97 a

For more detail table, please refer to https://www.asciitable.com/

38.2 Common Key Events Constants.

In Visual Basic 6, it employs a set of constants that correspond to the ASCII values. We can use the constants instead of
the ASCII. Table 38.2 shows the constants and the corresponding ASCII values.

Table 38.2: Common Key Events Constants

Event Constant ASCII Chr Event Constant ASCII Chr

vbKey0 48 0 vbKeyR 82 R

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vbKey2 50 2 vbKeyT 84 T

vbKey3 51 3 vbKeyU 85 U

vbKey4 52 4 vbKeyV 86 V

vbKey5 53 5 vbKeyW 87 W

vbKey6 54 6 vbKeyX 88 X

vbKey7 55 7 vbKeyY 89 Y

vbKey8 56 8 vbKeyZ 90 Z

vbKey9 57 9 vbKeyDecimal 110 Decima point

vbKeyA 65 A vbkeyBack 8 Backspace key

vbKeyB 66 B vbKeyTab 9 Tab key

vbKeyC 67 C vbkeyReturn 13 Return key(Enter key)

vbKeyD 68 D vbKeyShift 16 Shift key

vbKeyE 69 E vbKeyControl 17 Ctrl key

vbKeyF 70 F vbKeyCapital 20 Caps Lock key

vbKeyG 71 G vbKeyEscape 27 Esc key

vbKeyH 72 H vbKeySpace 32 Space bar

vbKeyI 73 I vbKeyInsert 45 Insert key

vbKeyJ 74 J vbKeyDelete 46 Delete key

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vbKeyL 76 L

vbKeyM 77 M

vbKeyN 78 N

vbKeyO 79 O

vbKeyP 80 P

vbKeyQ 81 Q

38.3 Writing code for the key events

We can write code for the three key events i.e. keyPress, KeyDown and KeyUp.

Example 38.1

Private Sub Form_KeyPress(KeyAscii As Integer)

If KeyAscii = 13 Then '13 is the ASCII value for the Enter key
Print "You have pressed the Enter key"
Else
Print "You have pressed other key"
End If
End Sub

In this example, the program can detect the pressing of Enter key and the keys other than the Enter key.

Example 38.2

If you wish to detect and display the key pressed by the user, simply type the following code:

Private Sub Form_KeyPress(KeyAscii As Integer)

Print Chr(KeyAscii)
End Sub

The function Chr will convert the ASCII values to the corresponding characters as shown in the ASCII table.

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For i = 65 To 90
Print Chr(KeyAscii)
Next
End Sub

In this example, we use the For ...Next loop to display the alphabet A to Z by pressing any key on the keyboard.

Example 38.4
Private Sub Form_KeyPress(KeyAscii As Integer)
If KeyAscii = 13 Then
For i = 97 To 122
Print Chr(i)
Next
End If
End Sub

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