How do I capture the enter key in a windows forms combobox

Question

How do I capture the enter key in a windows forms combo box when the combobox is active?

I\'ve tried to listen to KeyDown and KeyPress and I\'ve created a subclass a

Answer 1

Hook up the KeyPress event to a method like this:

protected void myCombo_OnKeyPress(object sender, KeyPressEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.KeyChar == 13)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Enter pressed", "Attention");                
    }
}

I've tested this in a WinForms application with VS2008 and it works.

If it isn't working for you, please post your code.

Answer 2

In case you define AcceptButton on your form, you cannot listen to Enter key in KeyDown/KeyUp/KeyPress.

In order to check for that, you need to override ProcessCmdKey on FORM:

protected override bool ProcessCmdKey(ref Message msg, Keys keyData) {
    if ((this.ActiveControl == myComboBox) && (keyData == Keys.Return)) {
        MessageBox.Show("Combo Enter");
        return true;
    } else {
        return base.ProcessCmdKey(ref msg, keyData);
    }
}

In this example that would give you message box if you are on combo box and it works as before for all other controls.

Answer 3

private void comboBox1_KeyDown( object sender, EventArgs e )
{
   if( e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter )
   {
      // Do something here...
   } else Application.DoEvents();
}

Answer 4

Try this:

protected override bool ProcessCmdKey(ref Message msg, Keys k)
{
    if (k == Keys.Enter || k == Keys.Return)
    {
        this.Text = null;
        return true;
    }

    return base.ProcessCmdKey(ref msg, k);
}

Answer 5

or altertatively you can hook up the KeyDown event:

private void comboBox1_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Enter pressed.");
    }
}

Answer 6

protected void Form_KeyPress(object sender, KeyPressEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.KeyChar == 13)  // or Key.Enter or Key.Return
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Enter pressed", "KeyPress Event");                
    }
}

Don't forget to set KeyPreview to true on the form.