How can I make Robot type a `:`?

Eric Bautista picture Eric Bautista · Apr 20, 2011 · Viewed 14.4k times · Source

I want to type : using Java Robot. However, I'm getting an IllegalArgumentException. My code is:

robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_COLON);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_COLON);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);

The exception is:

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Invalid key code.].

I also tried with:

robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SEMICOLON);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SEMICOLON);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);

How can I solve this problem?

Answer

GuruKulki picture GuruKulki · Apr 20, 2011

try with this code :

robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SEMICOLON);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SEMICOLON);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);

As with the keyboard you enter : when you press shift + ;. the same you need to simulate.

Try running this code just to try out which works fine with above answer:

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Robot robot;
        try {
            robot = new Robot();
            robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);  
            robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SEMICOLON);  
            robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SEMICOLON);  
            robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
        } catch (AWTException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch bloc
            e.printStackTrace();
        }


    }
}