I'm trying to update player text input in real-time.
In Monogame / XNA, the Key class does have toString() method, but their return is not exactly what I wish to have. For example, if I press 2 on a QWERTY keyboard (the 2 on top of Q and W), the Key value would be D2, this is understandable. But when I invoke toString(), I will still get "D2".
I can, of course, truncate the first character to get only the digit, but is there any other way, like an XNA method, that could return me "2" when given Key.D2?
There is no build-in XNA/.Net method that automatically maps each custom string to Key enums. This is especially true if you are working with non-QWERTY keyboards, such as the French AZERTY. Therefore, you must make a class that maps each Key to the string you want displayed. Here is an example.
public class KeyboardLayout
{
public char? ToChar(Keys key, KeyboardModifiers modifiers = KeyboardModifiers.None)
{
var isShiftDown = (modifiers & KeyboardModifiers.Shift) == KeyboardModifiers.Shift;
var isAltGrDown = false;
if (!isShiftDown)
isAltGrDown = (modifiers & KeyboardModifiers.Alt) == KeyboardModifiers.Alt || (modifiers & KeyboardModifiers.Control) == KeyboardModifiers.Control;
if (isAltGrDown)
{
//international keyboards
if (key == Keys.V) return '@';
if (key == Keys.D2) return '@';
if (key == Keys.Q) return '@';
}
if (key == Keys.A) return isShiftDown ? 'A' : 'a';
if (key == Keys.B) return isShiftDown ? 'B' : 'b';
if (key == Keys.C) return isShiftDown ? 'C' : 'c';
if (key == Keys.D) return isShiftDown ? 'D' : 'd';
if (key == Keys.E) return isShiftDown ? 'E' : 'e';
if (key == Keys.F) return isShiftDown ? 'F' : 'f';
if (key == Keys.G) return isShiftDown ? 'G' : 'g';
if (key == Keys.H) return isShiftDown ? 'H' : 'h';
if (key == Keys.I) return isShiftDown ? 'I' : 'i';
if (key == Keys.J) return isShiftDown ? 'J' : 'j';
if (key == Keys.K) return isShiftDown ? 'K' : 'k';
if (key == Keys.L) return isShiftDown ? 'L' : 'l';
if (key == Keys.M) return isShiftDown ? 'M' : 'm';
if (key == Keys.N) return isShiftDown ? 'N' : 'n';
if (key == Keys.O) return isShiftDown ? 'O' : 'o';
if (key == Keys.P) return isShiftDown ? 'P' : 'p';
if (key == Keys.Q) return isShiftDown ? 'Q' : 'q';
if (key == Keys.R) return isShiftDown ? 'R' : 'r';
if (key == Keys.S) return isShiftDown ? 'S' : 's';
if (key == Keys.T) return isShiftDown ? 'T' : 't';
if (key == Keys.U) return isShiftDown ? 'U' : 'u';
if (key == Keys.V) return isShiftDown ? 'V' : 'v';
if (key == Keys.W) return isShiftDown ? 'W' : 'w';
if (key == Keys.X) return isShiftDown ? 'X' : 'x';
if (key == Keys.Y) return isShiftDown ? 'Y' : 'y';
if (key == Keys.Z) return isShiftDown ? 'Z' : 'z';
if (((key == Keys.D0) && !isShiftDown) || (key == Keys.NumPad0)) return '0';
if (((key == Keys.D1) && !isShiftDown) || (key == Keys.NumPad1)) return '1';
if (((key == Keys.D2) && !isShiftDown) || (key == Keys.NumPad2)) return '2';
if (((key == Keys.D3) && !isShiftDown) || (key == Keys.NumPad3)) return '3';
if (((key == Keys.D4) && !isShiftDown) || (key == Keys.NumPad4)) return '4';
if (((key == Keys.D5) && !isShiftDown) || (key == Keys.NumPad5)) return '5';
if (((key == Keys.D6) && !isShiftDown) || (key == Keys.NumPad6)) return '6';
if (((key == Keys.D7) && !isShiftDown) || (key == Keys.NumPad7)) return '7';
if (((key == Keys.D8) && !isShiftDown) || (key == Keys.NumPad8)) return '8';
if (((key == Keys.D9) && !isShiftDown) || (key == Keys.NumPad9)) return '9';
if ((key == Keys.D0) && isShiftDown) return ')';
if ((key == Keys.D1) && isShiftDown) return '!';
if ((key == Keys.D2) && isShiftDown) return '@';
if ((key == Keys.D3) && isShiftDown) return '#';
if ((key == Keys.D4) && isShiftDown) return '$';
if ((key == Keys.D5) && isShiftDown) return '%';
if ((key == Keys.D6) && isShiftDown) return '^';
if ((key == Keys.D7) && isShiftDown) return '&';
if ((key == Keys.D8) && isShiftDown) return '*';
if ((key == Keys.D9) && isShiftDown) return '(';
if (key == Keys.Space) return ' ';
if (key == Keys.Tab) return '\t';
if (key == Keys.Enter) return (char)13;
if (key == Keys.Back) return (char)8;
if (key == Keys.Add) return '+';
if (key == Keys.Decimal) return '.';
if (key == Keys.Divide) return '/';
if (key == Keys.Multiply) return '*';
if (key == Keys.OemBackslash) return '\\';
if ((key == Keys.OemComma) && !isShiftDown) return ',';
if ((key == Keys.OemComma) && isShiftDown) return '<';
if ((key == Keys.OemOpenBrackets) && !isShiftDown) return '[';
if ((key == Keys.OemOpenBrackets) && isShiftDown) return '{';
if ((key == Keys.OemCloseBrackets) && !isShiftDown) return ']';
if ((key == Keys.OemCloseBrackets) && isShiftDown) return '}';
if ((key == Keys.OemPeriod) && !isShiftDown) return '.';
if ((key == Keys.OemPeriod) && isShiftDown) return '>';
if ((key == Keys.OemPipe) && !isShiftDown) return '\\';
if ((key == Keys.OemPipe) && isShiftDown) return '|';
if ((key == Keys.OemPlus) && !isShiftDown) return '=';
if ((key == Keys.OemPlus) && isShiftDown) return '+';
if ((key == Keys.OemMinus) && !isShiftDown) return '-';
if ((key == Keys.OemMinus) && isShiftDown) return '_';
if ((key == Keys.OemQuestion) && !isShiftDown) return '/';
if ((key == Keys.OemQuestion) && isShiftDown) return '?';
if ((key == Keys.OemQuotes) && !isShiftDown) return '\'';
if ((key == Keys.OemQuotes) && isShiftDown) return '"';
if ((key == Keys.OemSemicolon) && !isShiftDown) return ';';
if ((key == Keys.OemSemicolon) && isShiftDown) return ':';
if ((key == Keys.OemTilde) && !isShiftDown) return '`';
if ((key == Keys.OemTilde) && isShiftDown) return '~';
if (key == Keys.Subtract) return '-';
return null;
}
}