XNA - Keyboard text input

Question

Okay, so basically I want to be able to retrieve keyboard text. Like entering text into a text field or something. I\'m only writing my game for windows. I\'ve disregarded u

Answer 1

Here's a simple way, IMO, to have the space, back, A-Z and then the special chars !,@,#,$,%,^,&,*,(,). (Note, you need to import System.Linq) Here are the fields:

Keys[] keys;
bool[] IskeyUp;
string[] SC = { ")" , "!", "@", "#", "$", "%", "^", "&", "*", "("};//special characters

Constructor:

keys = new Keys[38];
Keys[] tempkeys;
tempkeys = Enum.GetValues(typeof(Keys)).Cast().ToArray();
int j = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < tempkeys.Length; i++)
{
    if (i == 1 || i == 11 || (i > 26 && i < 63))//get the keys listed above as well as A-Z
    {
        keys[j] = tempkeys[i];//fill our key array
        j++;
    }
}
IskeyUp = new bool[keys.Length]; //boolean for each key to make the user have to release the key before adding to the string
for (int i = 0; i < keys.Length; i++)
    IskeyUp[i] = true;

And Finally, the update method:

string result = "";

public override void Update(GameTime gameTime)
{
    KeyboardState state = Keyboard.GetState();
    int i = 0;
    foreach (Keys key in keys)
    {
        if (state.IsKeyDown(key))
        {
            if (IskeyUp[i])
            {
                if (key == Keys.Back && result != "") result = result.Remove(result.Length - 1);
                if (key == Keys.Space) result += " ";
                if (i > 1 && i < 12)
                {
                    if (state.IsKeyDown(Keys.RightShift) || state.IsKeyDown(Keys.LeftShift))
                        result += SC[i - 2];//if shift is down, and a number is pressed, using the special key
                    else result += key.ToString()[1];
                }
                if (i > 11 && i < 38)
                {
                    if (state.IsKeyDown(Keys.RightShift) || state.IsKeyDown(Keys.LeftShift))
                       result += key.ToString();
                    else result += key.ToString().ToLower(); //return the lowercase char is shift is up.
                }
            }
            IskeyUp[i] = false; //make sure we know the key is pressed
        }
        else if (state.IsKeyUp(key)) IskeyUp[i] = true;
        i++;
    }
    base.Update(gameTime, otherScreenHasFocus, coveredByOtherScreen);
}

Hopefull this well help. I personally thought it was easier to use than the hooks, and this also can easily be modified for special results (such as shuffling the keys).