The VkKeyScan function translates a character to the corresponding virtual-key code and shift state for the current keyboard.

This function has been superseded by the VkKeyScanEx function. You can still use VkKeyScan, however, if you do not need to specify a keyboard layout.

Syntax

SHORT VkKeyScan(      
    TCHAR ch
);

Parameters

ch

[in] Specifies the character to be translated into a virtual-key code.

Return Value

If the function succeeds, the low-order byte of the return value contains the virtual-key code and the high-order byte contains the shift state, which can be a combination of the following flag bits.

If the function finds no key that translates to the passed character code, both the low-order and high-order bytes contain –1.

Bit	Meaning
1	Either SHIFT key is pressed.
2	Either CTRL key is pressed.
4	Either ALT key is pressed.
8	The Hankaku key is pressed
16	Reserved (defined by the keyboard layout driver).
32	Reserved (defined by the keyboard layout driver).

Remarks

For keyboard layouts that use the right-hand ALT key as a shift key (for example, the French keyboard layout), the shift state is represented by the value 6, because the right-hand ALT key is converted internally into CTRL+ALT.

Translations for the numeric keypad (VK_NUMPAD0 through VK_DIVIDE) are ignored. This function is intended to translate characters into keystrokes from the main keyboard section only. For example, the character "7" is translated into VK_7, not VK_NUMPAD7.

VkKeyScan is used by applications that send characters by using the WM_KEYUP and WM_KEYDOWN messages.

Windows 95/98/Me: VkKeyScanW is supported by the Microsoft Layer for Unicode (MSLU). To use this, you must add certain files to your application, as outlined in Microsoft Layer for Unicode on Windows 95/98/Me Systems.

Function Information

Minimum DLL Version	user32.dll
Header	Declared in Winuser.h, include Windows.h
Import library	User32.lib
Minimum operating systems	Windows 95, Windows NT 3.1
Unicode	Implemented as ANSI and Unicode versions.

See Also

Keyboard Input, GetAsyncKeyState, GetKeyboardState, GetKeyNameText, GetKeyState, SetKeyboardState, VkKeyScanEx, WM_KEYDOWN, WM_KEYUP