Syntax

key = GETKEY(code)

Arguments

key: integer

code: 0, 1, 2 or 3

Platform

DOS (not supported in Axiell Collections and RunAdapl.exe)

Meaning

Waits for an ASCII key, function key or function combination and gives the identifying value for it.

GETKEY(0) indicates whether a key has been pressed. The function does not wait for a key to be pressed. key = 1 means that a key has been pressed; otherwise, the result will be 0.

GETKEY(1) returns the ASCII value of the key pressed. If the key that was pressed is either a function key, the edit/cursor key or the Ctrl key, the result will be 0. The Enter, Esc, Backspace, Tab and Backtab keys also give 0 as result.

GETKEY(2) waits for a key to be pressed, and returns the Adlib function code for it. The function codes are shown in the table below. Ordinary ASCII keys return the function code 0. Keys that do not have a valid function or ASCII value give the result -1. Enter, Esc, Backspace, Tab and Backtab are function keys in Adlib.

GETKEY(3) waits for a key to be pressed and returns an ASCII value or an Adlib function code. If a function code is found, it will be returned as a negative number. If an ASCII value is found, the result will be the positive value 1 (GETKEY(2) would then result in -1).

The following table shows the function codes for GETKEY(2)under MS-DOS.

Note that this function does not work when you run the adapl in which it appears as a stand-alone program, through adeval.exe: getkey will cause the adapl to stop running, and the Windows Task Manager has to be used to close the adapl.

When an adapl with this function is called from within Adlib for Windows, getkey always returns zero.