The GetKeyState function retrieves the status of the specified virtual key. The status specifies whether the key is up, down, or toggled (on, off — alternating each time the key is pressed).
SHORT GetKeyState(
int nVirtKey // virtual-key code
);
If a non-English keyboard layout is used, virtual keys with values in the range ASCII A through Z and 0 through 9 are used to specify most of the character keys. For example, for the German keyboard layout, the virtual key of value ASCII O (0x4F) refers to the "o" key, whereas VK_OEM_1 refers to the "o with umlaut" key.
The return value specifies the status of the given virtual key, as follows:
The key status returned from this function changes as a given thread reads key messages from its message queue. The status does not reflect the interrupt-level state associated with the hardware. Use the GetAsyncKeyState function to retrieve that information.
An application calls GetKeyState in response to a keyboard-input message. This function retrieves the state of the key when the input message was generated.
To retrieve state information for all the virtual keys, use the GetKeyboardState function.
An application can use the virtual-key code constants VK_SHIFT, VK_CONTROL, and VK_MENU as values for the nVirtKey parameter. This gives the status of the shift, ctrl, or alt keys without distinguishing between left and right. An application can also use the following virtual-key code constants as values for nVirtKey to distinguish between the left and right instances of those keys.
VK_LSHIFT | VK_RSHIFT |
VK_LCONTROL | VK_RCONTROL |
VK_LMENU | VK_RMENU |
These left- and right-distinguishing constants are available to an application only through the GetKeyboardState, SetKeyboardState, GetAsyncKeyState, GetKeyState, and MapVirtualKey functions.
Windows CE: The GetKeyState function can only be used to check the down state of the following virtual keys:
VK_CONTROL
VK_SHIFT
VK_MENU
VK_LCONTROL
VK_LSHIFT
VK_LMENU
VK_RCONTROL
VK_RSHIFT
VK_RMENU
GetKeyState can only be used to check the toggled state of the VK_CAPITAL virtual key.
Windows NT: Requires version 3.1 or later.
Windows: Requires Windows 95 or later.
Windows CE: Requires version 1.0 or later.
Header: Declared in winuser.h.
Import Library: Use user32.lib.
Keyboard Input Overview, Keyboard Input Functions, GetAsyncKeyState, GetKeyboardState, MapVirtualKey, SetKeyboardState