Simulating a key press event in Python 2.7

Question

What I want to do is to press any keyboard key from the Python script level on Windows. I have tried SendKeys but it works only on python 2.6. Other methods that I have tried including

import win32com.client 
win32com.client.Dispatch("WScript.Shell").SendKeys('String to be typed')

allow only to type strings from the script level but dont allow to press ENTER and other 'special' keys.

Therefore my question is: How can I simulate any keyboard key press event from python script level including 'special' ones like ENTER, CTRL, ESC etc.

It would be also very helpful if it is possible to hold a key pressed down for any specified time and press a combination of keys like Alt+F4.

Solution

I wrote this code more than 1 year ago so it is not perfect but it works:

from win32api import keybd_event
import time
import random


Combs = {
    'A': [
        'SHIFT',
        'a'],
    'B': [
        'SHIFT',
        'b'],
    'C': [
        'SHIFT',
        'c'],
    'D': [
        'SHIFT',
        'd'],
    'E': [
        'SHIFT',
        'e'],
    'F': [
        'SHIFT',
        'f'],
    'G': [
        'SHIFT',
        'g'],
    'H': [
        'SHIFT',
        'h'],
    'I': [
        'SHIFT',
        'i'],
    'J': [
        'SHIFT',
        'j'],
    'K': [
        'SHIFT',
        'k'],
    'L': [
        'SHIFT',
        'l'],
    'M': [
        'SHIFT',
        'm'],
    'N': [
        'SHIFT',
        'n'],
    'O': [
        'SHIFT',
        'o'],
    'P': [
        'SHIFT',
        'p'],
    'R': [
        'SHIFT',
        'r'],
    'S': [
        'SHIFT',
        's'],
    'T': [
        'SHIFT',
        't'],
    'U': [
        'SHIFT',
        'u'],
    'W': [
        'SHIFT',
        'w'],
    'X': [
        'SHIFT',
        'x'],
    'Y': [
        'SHIFT',
        'y'],
    'Z': [
        'SHIFT',
        'z'],
    'V': [
        'SHIFT',
        'v'],
    'Q': [
        'SHIFT',
        'q'],
    '?': [
        'SHIFT',
        '/'],
    '>': [
        'SHIFT',
        '.'],
    '<': [
        'SHIFT',
        ','],
    '"': [
        'SHIFT',
        "'"],
    ':': [
        'SHIFT',
        ';'],
    '|': [
        'SHIFT',
        '\\'],
    '}': [
        'SHIFT',
        ']'],
    '{': [
        'SHIFT',
        '['],
    '+': [
        'SHIFT',
        '='],
    '_': [
        'SHIFT',
        '-'],
    '!': [
        'SHIFT',
        '1'],
    '@': [
        'SHIFT',
        '2'],
    '#': [
        'SHIFT',
        '3'],
    '$': [
        'SHIFT',
        '4'],
    '%': [
        'SHIFT',
        '5'],
    '^': [
        'SHIFT',
        '6'],
    '&': [
        'SHIFT',
        '7'],
    '*': [
        'SHIFT',
        '8'],
    '(': [
        'SHIFT',
        '9'],
    ')': [
        'SHIFT',
        '0'] }
Base = {
    '0': 48,
    '1': 49,
    '2': 50,
    '3': 51,
    '4': 52,
    '5': 53,
    '6': 54,
    '7': 55,
    '8': 56,
    '9': 57,
    'a': 65,
    'b': 66,
    'c': 67,
    'd': 68,
    'e': 69,
    'f': 70,
    'g': 71,
    'h': 72,
    'i': 73,
    'j': 74,
    'k': 75,
    'l': 76,
    'm': 77,
    'n': 78,
    'o': 79,
    'p': 80,
    'q': 81,
    'r': 82,
    's': 83,
    't': 84,
    'u': 85,
    'v': 86,
    'w': 87,
    'x': 88,
    'y': 89,
    'z': 90,
    '.': 190,
    '-': 189,
    ',': 188,
    '=': 187,
    '/': 191,
    ';': 186,
    '[': 219,
    ']': 221,
    '\\': 220,
    "'": 222,
    'ALT': 18,
    'TAB': 9,
    'CAPSLOCK': 20,
    'ENTER': 13,
    'BS': 8,
    'CTRL': 17,
    'ESC': 27,
    ' ': 32,
    'END': 35,
    'DOWN': 40,
    'LEFT': 37,
    'UP': 38,
    'RIGHT': 39,
    'SELECT': 41,
    'PRINTSCR': 44,
    'INS': 45,
    'DEL': 46,
    'LWIN': 91,
    'RWIN': 92,
    'LSHIFT': 160,
    'SHIFT': 161,
    'LCTRL': 162,
    'RCTRL': 163,
    'VOLUP': 175,
    'DOLDOWN': 174,
    'NUMLOCK': 144,
    'SCROLL': 145 }

def KeyUp(Key):
    keybd_event(Key, 0, 2, 0)


def KeyDown(Key):
    keybd_event(Key, 0, 1, 0)


def Press(Key, speed=1):
    rest_time = 0.05/speed
    if Key in Base:
        Key = Base[Key]
        KeyDown(Key)
        time.sleep(rest_time)
        KeyUp(Key)
        return True
    if Key in Combs:
        KeyDown(Base[Combs[Key][0]])
        time.sleep(rest_time)
        KeyDown(Base[Combs[Key][1]])
        time.sleep(rest_time)
        KeyUp(Base[Combs[Key][1]])
        time.sleep(rest_time)
        KeyUp(Base[Combs[Key][0]])
        return True
    return False


def Write(Str, speed = 1):
    for s in Str:
        Press(s, speed)
        time.sleep((0.1 + random.random()/10.0) / float(speed))

Example:

>>> Write('Hello, World!', speed=3)
Hello, World!
>>> Press('ENTER')

If you want to implement some more keys then you can find their codes here. And just add these keys to the Base dictionary.

Comments

[Amit Gold]

Question: what about function keys? (f1, f2,f3...)

[Piotr Dabkowski]

Just add these keys to Base dictionary. For example F1 is 0x70. See the link to the remaining keys in my updated answers.