Catching the “Enter” key in a CListCtrl (and other controls)

In order to catch the “Enter” key, and other special keys in a CListCtrl
(or any control for that matter) it is necessary to derive your own class and
add a handler for the WM_GETDLGCODE message. To allow all special keys to be
processed by the control add the following:


UINT SMUPPGrid::OnGetDlgCode()
{
UINT result = CListCtrl::OnGetDlgCode();
result = result | DLGC_WANTALLKEYS;
return result;
}

Other options include (from MSDEV documentation):

  • DLGC_WANTALLKEYS All keyboard input.
  • DLGC_WANTARROWS Arrow keys.
  • DLGC_WANTCHARS WM_CHAR messages.
  • DLGC_WANTMESSAGE All keyboard input. The application passes this message on to the control.
  • DLGC_WANTTAB TAB key.
  • DLGC_BUTTON Button (generic).
  • DLGC_DEFPUSHBUTTON Default pushbutton.
  • DLGC_HASSETSEL EM_SETSEL messages.
  • DLGC_UNDEFPUSHBUTTON No default pushbutton processing. (An application can use this flag with DLGC_BUTTON to indicate that it processes button input but relies on the system for default pushbutton processing.)
  • DLGC_RADIOBUTTON Radio button.
  • DLGC_STATIC Static control.

This is a relatively simple process but it is not really all that intuitive or
well documented.

Last updated: 9 May 1998

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