user32.dll/VkKeyScan - not doing it right?

[YellowAfterlife]

Hello there.

I'm trying to get function VkKeyScan from user32.dll to work, to avoid making an awkward switch or hashtable to convert keys for other DLL calls.

According to MSDN, function is defined as

short VkKeyScan(TCHAR ch)

My current code is:

func _VkKeyScan($ch)
    local $aResult = dllCall('user32.dll', 'short', 'VkKeyScan', 'int', $ch)
    if (@error) then
        consoleWrite('(debug) Something did not work.')
        return setError(@error, @extended, '')
    endif
    return $aResult
endfunc

With the following used to test it:

local $sym = 'A'
consoleWrite('vkKeyScan for [' & $sym & '] = [' & string(_vkKeyScan($sym)) & ']' & @CR)

However, no matter what is in, nothing is out. Not an error, not anything else.

vkKeyScan for [A] = []

I have also tried 'int' for return type, and 'str' for input type, but no results.

What am I doing wrong here?

Fantastically late self-answer: I have no recollection of what exactly I was trying to do here, but I probably wanted ControlSend

Edited April 25, 2019 by YellowAfterlife

[ProgAndy]

It would be even better to use Unicode (VkKeyScanW, AscW)

ConsoleWrite('vkKeyScan for [' & "a" & '] = [' & _vkKeyScan("a") & ']' & @CR)

; return value is VK code
; @extended contains shift state
Func _VkKeyScan($s_Char)
     Local $a_Ret = DllCall("user32.dll", "short", "VkKeyScanW", "ushort", AscW($s_Char))
     If @error Then Return SetError(@error, @extended, -1)
     Return SetExtended(BitShift($a_Ret[0], 8), BitAnd($a_Ret[0], 0xFF))
EndFunc

Edited March 17, 2012 by ProgAndy

[YellowAfterlife]

It would be even better to use Unicode (VkKeyScanW, AscW)

ConsoleWrite('vkKeyScan for [' & "a" & '] = [' & _vkKeyScan("a") & ']' & @CR)

; return value is VK code
; @extended contains shift state
Func _VkKeyScan($s_Char)
     Local $a_Ret = DllCall("user32.dll", "short", "VkKeyScanW", "ushort", AscW($s_Char))
     If @error Then Return SetError(@error, @extended, -1)
     Return SetExtended(BitShift($a_Ret[0], 8), BitAnd($a_Ret[0], 0xFF))
EndFunc

And if one needs combined value (same as when using from WINAPI), function would look like this?

Func _VkKeyScan($s_Char)
    Local $a_Ret = DllCall("user32.dll", "short", "VkKeyScan", "ushort", AscW($s_Char))
    If @error Then Return SetError(@error, @extended, -1)
Return $a_Ret[0]
EndFunc

My intent here is to pass key to PostMessage, so chosen application would receive keyboard event:

local $h = winGetHandle('[CLASS:Notepad]')
local $k = _VkKeyScan('A')
$WM_KEYDOWN = 0x0100
$WM_KEYUP = 0x0101
consoleWrite('handle: ' & string($h) & @CR)
consoleWrite('vkey: ' & string($k) & @CR)
DllCall('user32.dll', 'int', "PostMessage", 'hwnd', $h, 'uint', $WM_KEYDOWN, 'uint', $k, 'uint', 0x00140001)
sleep(50)
DllCall('user32.dll', 'int', "PostMessage", 'hwnd', $h, 'uint', $WM_KEYUP, 'uint', $k, 'uint', 0xC0014001)

However this does not work - application does not react (in both cases of notepad and target one), and no errors are raised.

"Magic numbers" in code are repeat=1,oem=20,transitionState=0/1

Reason for trying to do this rather than sendsendKeepActive is that amount of keys to be typed in may vary, and it is preferred that other programs could be used on machine while keyboard events are sent.