struct KeyboardEvent

A single keyboard input event, either a key press, a key release, or one codepoint of insertable text. Events preserve the exact order they were produced in, including how text and keys interleave.

Instance Fields and Properties


Key key	The key for press and release events, and none for text events. Mouse buttons arrive here too, as the mouse key values.
KeyMod modifiers	The modifier keys held when this event was produced. A modifier’s own press event includes itself, its release event does not.
string Text	This event’s text, as a string. Emoji and other codepoints outside the Basic Multilingual Plane don’t fit in a single C# char, so this is the safe way to read one. Empty for key events.
KeyboardEventType type	What kind of event this is, and which of the fields below apply.

Examples

Reading the keyboard event queue

Input.KeyboardConsume reads this frame’s key presses, releases, and text in the exact order the user produced them, which is the right foundation for custom text editing. Text events carry the layout and language sensitive characters to insert, while key events carry the editing intent that text can’t express, and each auto-repeat of a held key is its own press event.

Reading consumes, so a focused UI.Input earlier in the frame will empty the queue. If observing is all you need, Input.KeyboardEventAt reads by index without consuming anything.

static string typed = "";
static void ReadKeyboardEvents()
{
	while (Input.KeyboardConsume(out KeyboardEvent e))
	{
		switch (e.type)
		{
			case KeyboardEventType.Text:
				// Text may be two chars, for emoji and other codepoints
				// too large for a single C# char.
				typed += e.Text;
				break;
			case KeyboardEventType.KeyPress:
				if (e.key == Key.Backspace && typed.Length > 0)
				{
					// Erase the whole codepoint, which may be two chars
					int last = char.IsLowSurrogate(typed[typed.Length-1]) ? 2 : 1;
					typed = typed.Remove(typed.Length - last);
				}
				break;
		}
	}
}

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