How to remap a keyboard key using Java Swing?

Question

how to remap a key in keyboard using java so that i could give new meaning to a key

Answer 1

Capture key-events:

java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().addAWTEventListener(myListener, AWTEvent.KEY_EVENT_MASK);

Simulate key press:

java.awt.Robot.keyPress(myKeyCode);

Answer 2

Don't really understand the context of your question. But theoretically you could intercept all KeyEvents and then dispatch a different KeyEvent based on your criteria. Global Event Dispatching might give you some ideas.

Answer 3

If I understand the question, it's how to explicitly define behavior for a specific key. Here's how I do this to implement keyboard shortcuts -- hopefully it answers your question. In my example below, I believe you can change 'this' to be the specific component you wish to explicitly set the keyboard behavior on, overriding its default behavior. I usually do this in the context of a panel or frame.

private void addHotKey(KeyStroke keyStroke, String inputActionKey, Action listener) {
    ActionMap actionMap = this.getActionMap();
    InputMap inputMap = this.getInputMap(JComponent.WHEN_IN_FOCUSED_WINDOW);
    inputMap.put(keyStroke, inputActionKey);
    actionMap.put(inputActionKey, listener);
}

The inputActionKey is just an arbitrary key string to use for mapping the action. An example of invoking this method to listen for the DEL key:

    KeyStroke keyStroke = KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_DELETE, 0);
    Action listener = new AbstractAction() {
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            // delete something...
        }
    };
    addHotKey(keyStroke, "MainWindowDEL", listener);