How can I send keyboard commands (hold,release,simultanous) with a python script?

Question

I want to send virtually the command like this:

when keypress==\"a\"                   #if entered key is \"a\"
    send {ALT+TAB}                   # send A         


        

Answer 1

I know how to do it with ctypes. For example for Alt-Tab (it is a lot of boilerplate code, I know) :

import ctypes
import time

SendInput = ctypes.windll.user32.SendInput

PUL = ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_ulong)
class KeyBdInput(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [("wVk", ctypes.c_ushort),
                ("wScan", ctypes.c_ushort),
                ("dwFlags", ctypes.c_ulong),
                ("time", ctypes.c_ulong),
                ("dwExtraInfo", PUL)]

class HardwareInput(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [("uMsg", ctypes.c_ulong),
                ("wParamL", ctypes.c_short),
                ("wParamH", ctypes.c_ushort)]

class MouseInput(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [("dx", ctypes.c_long),
                ("dy", ctypes.c_long),
                ("mouseData", ctypes.c_ulong),
                ("dwFlags", ctypes.c_ulong),
                ("time",ctypes.c_ulong),
                ("dwExtraInfo", PUL)]

class Input_I(ctypes.Union):
    _fields_ = [("ki", KeyBdInput),
                 ("mi", MouseInput),
                 ("hi", HardwareInput)]

class Input(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [("type", ctypes.c_ulong),
                ("ii", Input_I)]

def PressKey(hexKeyCode):

    extra = ctypes.c_ulong(0)
    ii_ = Input_I()
    ii_.ki = KeyBdInput( hexKeyCode, 0x48, 0, 0, ctypes.pointer(extra) )
    x = Input( ctypes.c_ulong(1), ii_ )
    ctypes.windll.user32.SendInput(1, ctypes.pointer(x), ctypes.sizeof(x))

def ReleaseKey(hexKeyCode):

    extra = ctypes.c_ulong(0)
    ii_ = Input_I()
    ii_.ki = KeyBdInput( hexKeyCode, 0x48, 0x0002, 0, ctypes.pointer(extra) )
    x = Input( ctypes.c_ulong(1), ii_ )
    ctypes.windll.user32.SendInput(1, ctypes.pointer(x), ctypes.sizeof(x))


def PressAltTab():

    PressKey(0x012) #Alt
    PressKey(0x09) #Tab

    time.sleep(2) #optional : if you want to see the atl-tab overlay

    ReleaseKey(0x09) #~Tab
    ReleaseKey(0x012) #~Alt


if __name__ =="__main__":

     PressAltTab()

A modern version would use Unicode :

KEYEVENTF_UNICODE = 0x0004 KEYEVENTF_KEYUP = 0x0002

def PressKey(KeyUnicode):

    extra = ctypes.c_ulong(0)
    ii_ = Input_I()
    ii_.ki = KeyBdInput( 0, KeyUnicode, KEYEVENTF_UNICODE, 0, ctypes.pointer(extra) )
    x = Input( ctypes.c_ulong(1), ii_ )
    ctypes.windll.user32.SendInput(1, ctypes.pointer(x), ctypes.sizeof(x))

def ReleaseKey(KeyUnicode):

    extra = ctypes.c_ulong(0)
    ii_ = Input_I()
    ii_.ki = KeyBdInput( 0, KeyUnicode, KEYEVENTF_UNICODE|KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 0, ctypes.pointer(extra) )
    x = Input( ctypes.c_ulong(1), ii_ )
    ctypes.windll.user32.SendInput(1, ctypes.pointer(x), ctypes.sizeof(x))


def PressAltTab():

    PressKey(unichr(0x12)) #Alt
    PressKey(unichr(0x09)) #Tab

    time.sleep(2) #optional : if you want to see the atl-tab overlay

    ReleaseKey(unichr(0x09)) #~Tab
    ReleaseKey(unichr(0x12)) #~Alt


if __name__ =="__main__":

     PressAltTab()