User32_buttonState

.NET 6.0 console application, button state via user32.dll

Problem

I had the issue that my application needed to check how long an button was held by the user. First I tried the Console.ReadKey(); but this function lets the program wait for a key press.

Solution

With P/Invoke we can acces the structs, callbacks and functions in the unmanaged libraries from our managed code. This is how we can acces the user32.dll to get the virtual key stroke states.

Usages

Import user32.dll

C# signature:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
[DllImport("USER32.dll")]

OR

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("USER32.dll")]

Example

// Import P/Invoke
[DllImport("USER32.dll")]
static extern short GetKeyState(int nVirtKey);

while (true) {
    if(Convert.ToBoolean(GetKeyState(0x20) & 0x8000)) 
        Console.WriteLine("Spacebar is pressed down!");
}

Note: The a look at the Project so you can include the virtual keys by enum.

Resoures

Virtual-key Codes • Platform Invoke