Question

Hello I’m trying to add the select-all, cut, copy and paste command in my application, I managed to work out the cut, copy and paste command but I don’t seem to have figured out how to add the cmd–a command…

this worked for my cmd–x command

text.getInputMap(JComponent.WHEN_FOCUSED).put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_X, Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getMenuShortcutKeyMask()),  "cut");

but when I try this for cmd–a:

text.getInputMap(JComponent.WHEN_FOCUSED).put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_A, Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getMenuShortcutKeyMask()),  "select");

it doesn’t seem to work…

I read something about using this void to select the text, but I don’t know how to bind it to the command+a command

  myTextfield.selectAll(); 

Anyone got an idea on how to correctly implement this?

Answer 1

Use the correct String: "select-all" instead of "select".

You can discover these Strings by investigating the InputMap, for example by using:

  public static void main( String[] args ) {
    EventQueue.invokeLater( new Runnable() {
      @Override
      public void run() {
        JTextField textField = new JTextField();
        InputMap inputMap = textField.getInputMap( JComponent.WHEN_FOCUSED );
        KeyStroke[] keyStrokes = inputMap.allKeys();
        for ( int i = 0; i < keyStrokes.length; i++ ) {
          KeyStroke keyStroke = keyStrokes[ i ];
          Object value = inputMap.get( keyStroke );
          System.out.println(keyStroke + "-\"" + value + "\"");
        }
      }
    } );
  }

which prints out (not the complete output pasted here)

ctrl pressed BACK_SPACE-"delete-previous-word"
ctrl pressed A-"select-all"
shift pressed KP_RIGHT-"selection-forward"

This shows the String you are looking for is "select-all".

Note that it might be really counter-intuitive for a user to switch the function of the ctrl key and the cmd key . For example on a Mac the cmd+A by default does select all (which is expected), but I would never expect that on a Windows/Linux machine