Key Presses in Python

Is it possible to make it appear to a system that a key was pressed, for example I need to make A key be pressed thousands of times, and it is much to time consuming to do it manually, I would like to write something to do it for me, and the only thing I know well enough is Python.

A better way to put it, I need to emulate a key press, I.E. not capture a key press.

More Info (as requested): I am running windows XP and need to send the keys to another application.

Solution 1:

Install the pywin32 extensions. Then you can do the following:

import win32com.client as comclt
wsh= comclt.Dispatch("WScript.Shell")
wsh.AppActivate("Notepad") # select another application
wsh.SendKeys("a") # send the keys you want

Search for documentation of the WScript.Shell object (I believe installed by default in all Windows XP installations). You can start here, perhaps.

EDIT: Sending F11

import win32com.client as comctl
wsh = comctl.Dispatch("WScript.Shell")

# Google Chrome window title
wsh.AppActivate("icanhazip.com")
wsh.SendKeys("{F11}")

Solution 2:

You could also use PyAutoGui to send a virtual key presses.

Here's the documentation: https://pyautogui.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

import pyautogui


pyautogui.press('Any key combination')

You can also send keys like the shift key or enter key with:

import pyautogui

pyautogui.press('shift')

Pyautogui can also send straight text like so:

import pyautogui

pyautogui.typewrite('any text you want to type')

As for pressing the "A" key 1000 times, it would look something like this:

import pyautogui

for i in range(999):
    pyautogui.press("a")

alt-tab or other tasks that require more than one key to be pressed at the same time:

import pyautogui

# Holds down the alt key
pyautogui.keyDown("alt")

# Presses the tab key once
pyautogui.press("tab")

# Lets go of the alt key
pyautogui.keyUp("alt")

Solution 3:

AutoHotKey is perfect for this kind of tasks (keyboard automation / remapping)

Script to send "A" 100 times:

Send {A 100}

That's all

EDIT: to send the keys to an specific application:

WinActivate Word
Send {A 100}

Solution 4:

Check This module keyboard with many features.Install it, perhaps with this command:

pip3 install keyboard

Then Use this Code:

import keyboard
keyboard.write('A',delay=0)

If you Want to write 'A' multiple times, Then simply use a loop.
Note:
The key 'A' will be pressed for the whole windows.Means the script is running and you went to browser, the script will start writing there.

Solution 5:

Alternative way to set prefer window into foreground before send key press event.

hwnd = win32gui.FindWindowEx(0,0,0, "App title")
win32gui.SetForegroundWindow(hwnd)