# Keyboard routines

These functions are declared in the main Allegro header file:

     #include <allegro5/allegro.h>

# ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE

    typedef struct ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE;

This is a structure that is used to hold a "snapshot" of a keyboard's state at a particular instant. It contains the following publically readable fields:

- display - points to the display that had keyboard focus at the time the state was saved. If no display was focused, this points to NULL.

You cannot read the state of keys directly. Use the function al_key_down.

# Key codes

The constant ALLEGRO_KEY_MAX is always one higher than the highest key code. So if you want to use the key code as array index you can do something like this:

    bool pressed_keys[ALLEGRO_KEY_MAX];
    //...
    pressed_keys[key_code] = true;

These are the list of key codes used by Allegro, which are returned in the event.keyboard.keycode field of the ALLEGRO_KEY_DOWN and ALLEGRO_KEY_UP events and which you can pass to al_key_down:

    ALLEGRO_KEY_A ... ALLEGRO_KEY_Z
    ALLEGRO_KEY_0 ... ALLEGRO_KEY_9
    ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_0 ... ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_9
    ALLEGRO_KEY_F1 ... ALLEGRO_KEY_F12
    ALLEGRO_KEY_ESCAPE
    ALLEGRO_KEY_TILDE
    ALLEGRO_KEY_MINUS
    ALLEGRO_KEY_EQUALS
    ALLEGRO_KEY_BACKSPACE
    ALLEGRO_KEY_TAB
    ALLEGRO_KEY_OPENBRACE
    ALLEGRO_KEY_CLOSEBRACE
    ALLEGRO_KEY_ENTER
    ALLEGRO_KEY_SEMICOLON
    ALLEGRO_KEY_QUOTE
    ALLEGRO_KEY_BACKSLASH
    ALLEGRO_KEY_BACKSLASH2
    ALLEGRO_KEY_COMMA
    ALLEGRO_KEY_FULLSTOP
    ALLEGRO_KEY_SLASH
    ALLEGRO_KEY_SPACE
    ALLEGRO_KEY_INSERT
    ALLEGRO_KEY_DELETE
    ALLEGRO_KEY_HOME
    ALLEGRO_KEY_END
    ALLEGRO_KEY_PGUP
    ALLEGRO_KEY_PGDN
    ALLEGRO_KEY_LEFT
    ALLEGRO_KEY_RIGHT
    ALLEGRO_KEY_UP
    ALLEGRO_KEY_DOWN
    ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_SLASH
    ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_ASTERISK
    ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_MINUS
    ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_PLUS
    ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_DELETE
    ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_ENTER
    ALLEGRO_KEY_PRINTSCREEN
    ALLEGRO_KEY_PAUSE
    ALLEGRO_KEY_ABNT_C1
    ALLEGRO_KEY_YEN
    ALLEGRO_KEY_KANA
    ALLEGRO_KEY_CONVERT
    ALLEGRO_KEY_NOCONVERT
    ALLEGRO_KEY_AT
    ALLEGRO_KEY_CIRCUMFLEX
    ALLEGRO_KEY_COLON2
    ALLEGRO_KEY_KANJI
    ALLEGRO_KEY_LSHIFT
    ALLEGRO_KEY_RSHIFT
    ALLEGRO_KEY_LCTRL
    ALLEGRO_KEY_RCTRL
    ALLEGRO_KEY_ALT
    ALLEGRO_KEY_ALTGR
    ALLEGRO_KEY_LWIN
    ALLEGRO_KEY_RWIN
    ALLEGRO_KEY_MENU
    ALLEGRO_KEY_SCROLLLOCK
    ALLEGRO_KEY_NUMLOCK
    ALLEGRO_KEY_CAPSLOCK
    ALLEGRO_KEY_PAD_EQUALS
    ALLEGRO_KEY_BACKQUOTE
    ALLEGRO_KEY_SEMICOLON2
    ALLEGRO_KEY_COMMAND

# Keyboard modifier flags

    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_SHIFT
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_CTRL
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_ALT
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_LWIN
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_RWIN
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_MENU
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_ALTGR
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_COMMAND
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_SCROLLLOCK
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_NUMLOCK
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_CAPSLOCK
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_INALTSEQ
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_ACCENT1
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_ACCENT2
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_ACCENT3
    ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_ACCENT4

The event field 'keyboard.modifiers' is a bitfield composed of these constants. These indicate the modifier keys which were pressed at the time a character was typed.

# al_install_keyboard

    bool al_install_keyboard(void)

Install a keyboard driver. Returns true if successful. If a driver was already installed, nothing happens and true is returned.

See also: al_uninstall_keyboard, al_is_keyboard_installed

# al_is_keyboard_installed

    bool al_is_keyboard_installed(void)

Returns true if al_install_keyboard was called successfully.

# al_uninstall_keyboard

    void al_uninstall_keyboard(void)

Uninstalls the active keyboard driver, if any. This will automatically unregister the keyboard event source with any event queues.

This function is automatically called when Allegro is shut down.

See also: al_install_keyboard

# al_get_keyboard_state

    void al_get_keyboard_state(ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE *ret_state)

Save the state of the keyboard specified at the time the function is called into the structure pointed to by ret_state.

See also: al_key_down, ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE

# al_key_down

    bool al_key_down(const ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE *state, int keycode)

Return true if the key specified was held down in the state specified.

See also: ALLEGRO_KEYBOARD_STATE

# al_keycode_to_name

    const char *al_keycode_to_name(int keycode)

Converts the given keycode to a description of the key.

# al_set_keyboard_leds

    bool al_set_keyboard_leds(int leds)

Overrides the state of the keyboard LED indicators. Set `leds` to a combination of the keyboard modifier flags to enable the corresponding LED indicators (`ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_NUMLOCK`, `ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_CAPSLOCK` and `ALLEGRO_KEYMOD_SCROLLLOCK` are supported) or to -1 to return to default behavior. False is returned if the current keyboard driver cannot set LED indicators.

# al_get_keyboard_event_source

    ALLEGRO_EVENT_SOURCE *al_get_keyboard_event_source(void)

Retrieve the keyboard event source.

Returns NULL if the keyboard subsystem was not installed.

Allegro version 5.0.11 - Last updated: 2015-01-12 00:19:42 UTC