Question

How do you get the character appropriate for the given KeyDown event in WPF?

Answer 1

 public enum MapType : uint
    {
        MAPVK_VK_TO_VSC = 0x0,
        MAPVK_VSC_TO_VK = 0x1,
        MAPVK_VK_TO_CHAR = 0x2,
        MAPVK_VSC_TO_VK_EX = 0x3,
    }
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    public static extern bool GetKeyboardState(byte[] lpKeyState);
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    public static extern uint MapVirtualKey(uint uCode, MapType uMapType);
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    public static extern int ToUnicode(
     uint wVirtKey,
     uint wScanCode,
     byte[] lpKeyState,
     [Out, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr, SizeParamIndex = 4)] 
        StringBuilder pwszBuff,
     int cchBuff,
     uint wFlags);

    public static char GetCharFromKey(Key key)
    {
        char ch = ' ';

        int virtualKey = KeyInterop.VirtualKeyFromKey(key);
        byte[] keyboardState = new byte[256];
        GetKeyboardState(keyboardState);

        uint scanCode = MapVirtualKey((uint)virtualKey, MapType.MAPVK_VK_TO_VSC);
        StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder(2);

        int result = ToUnicode((uint)virtualKey, scanCode, keyboardState, stringBuilder, stringBuilder.Capacity, 0);
        switch (result)
        {
            case -1:
                break;
            case 0:
                break;
            case 1:
                {
                    ch = stringBuilder[0];
                    break;
                }
            default:
                {
                    ch = stringBuilder[0];
                    break;
                }
        }
        return ch;
    }