How to gather timing information of keystrokes using C#?

Question

I want to build a simple C# Windows Form Application that gathers user's keystrokes data.

Basically, the user needs to type in a word with length 10. I want to record each key's holding time, keydown to keydown time and keyup and keydown for adjacent keystrokes (so there are 10 + 9 + 9 = 28 measurements).

Could anyone tell me how to capture this information using text box events?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

You can handle KeyUp and KeyDown events on your TextBox. You can get current timestamp using DateTime.Now.

Store your last KeyUp and KeyDown events time and add measurements like this:

private DateTime? keyUpTime = null;
private DateTime? keyDownTime = null;

private List<double> keyDownKeyUpMeasurements = new List<double>();
private List<double> keyDownKeyDownMeasurements = new List<double>();
private List<double> keyUpKeyDownMeasurements = new List<double>();

private void textBox_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    DateTime prevKeyDownTime = keyDownTime;
    keyDownTime = DateTime.Now;

    if (prevKeyDownTime != null)
    {
        keyDownKeyDownMeasurements
            .Add(keyDownTime.Subtract(prevKeyDownTime).TotalMilliseconds);
    }

    if (keyUpTime != null)
    {
        keyUpKeyDownMeasurements
            .Add(keyDownTime.Subtract(keyUpTime).TotalMilliseconds);
    }
}

private void textBox_KeyUp(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    keyUpTime = DateTime.Now;
    keyDownKeyUpMeasurements
        .Add(keyUpTime.Subtract(keyDownTime).TotalMilliseconds);
}