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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-30T23:57:30+00:00

I have a little C# console application that reads a key and checks to

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I have a little C# console application that reads a key and checks to see if the key was a question mark:

ConsoleKeyInfo ki = System.Console.ReadKey();
if (ki.ConsoleKey.Oem2) // Do something

I arrived at Oem2 by seeing what value is actually assigned in the debugger, because there is no ConsoleKey code for question mark.

Now I could certainly use ki.KeyChar instead, but the application also needs to respond to certain keys (e.g. media keys) that do not map to characters. It feels inelegant to check both ConsoleKey and KeyChar to determine which key has in fact been pressed. On the other hand, it does not feel safe to rely on Oem2 to always map to ? in all circumstances and regions.

Is it best practice to check both properties to determine which key was in fact pressed?

Any insight into why ConsoleKeyInfo was designed this way is appreciated.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    In this case, you will have to check KeyChar == '?'. From MSDN:

    Oem2: The OEM 2 key (OEM specific).

    So you’re just getting lucky in that it happens to be a ? on your equipment.

    The ConsoleKeyInfo structure provides KeyChar (a Char value) as well as Modifiers (an enumeration) to help you decide what keys the user had pressed.

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