Enter key not recognized with curses

Question

I have this sample code where I write on the screen if the enter key is pressed but when I run the code nothing happens and nothing is written on the screen. I know I can use stdscr.getch(), but for some reason I don't want to use them.

import curses

def main(stdscr):
    stdscr.keypad(True)
    while 1:
        Key = stdscr.getkey()
        if Key == curses.KEY_ENTER:
            stdscr.addstr(0,0,'u pressed enter')
            stdscr.refresh()

curses.wrapper(main)

Answer 1

On my computer with Linux I have to use

if Key == '\n': 

or

if ord(Key) == 10:

It seems getkey() doesn't treat ENTER as special key and it doesn't return curses.KEY_ENTER. OR maybe it depens on terminal - some of then may have option to define code for ENTER and/or BACKSPACE.

EDIT:

I found out that for special keys getkey() gives me strings like "KEY_LEFT" instead of integer value curses.KEY_LEFT. But get_wch() gives integer value curses.KEY_LEFT (and char for normal keys) - but it still treats ENTER as '\n'

---

You should simply use print() to check what you get in variables.

print(Key, type(Key))

and when you see it is <class str>

print( ord(Key) )

You could also compare it with constant

print( Key, curses.KEY_ENTER, Key == curses.KEY_ENTER )

---

EDIT:

I tested it with this code on Linux Mint 20 MATE, Python 3.8, in Mate-Terminal.

import curses

def main(stdscr):

    while True:
        #key = stdscr.getch()     # always integer (keycode), native/Polish char WRONG (two wrong integers)
        #key = stdscr.getkey()    # char or string (keyname), native/Polish char WRONG (two wrong chars)
        key = stdscr.get_wch()   # char or integer (keycode), native/Polish char OK
        
        print('key:', type(key), key, end='\n\r')
        
        if isinstance(key, str):
            print('len:', len(key), end='\n\r')
            if len(key) == 1:            
                print('ord:', ord(key), end='\n\r')
        else:
            print('keyname:', curses.keyname(key), end='\n\r')

        print('---', end='\n\r')

        stdscr.refresh()

# --- main ---

#print('curses.KEY_ENTER:', curses.KEY_ENTER)
#print('curses.KEY_BACKSPACE:', curses.KEY_BACKSPACE)

curses.wrapper(main)

For me the best is get_wch() because it works correctly with native (Polish) chars.

getch()   - always integer (keycode),  native/Polish char WRONG (two wrong integers)
getkey()  - char or string (keyname),  native/Polish char WRONG (two wrong chars)
get_wch() - char or integer (keycode), native/Polish char OK
        

---

EDIT:

For key F1 it needs

• string "KEY_F(1)" for getkey()

  getkey() == "KEY_F(1)"
  

• integer 265 or curses.KEY_F1 for get_wch() and getch()

  get_wch() == 265
  get_wch() == curses.KEY_F1
  
  getch() == 265
  getch() == curses.KEY_F1