What are the ascii values of up down left right?

Question

Hey guys

Was wondering what the ascii values of the scroll keys are? ( up down left right)

Answer 1

In short:

left arrow: 37
up arrow: 38
right arrow: 39
down arrow: 40

Answer 2

If you're programming in OpenGL, use GLUT. The following page should help: http://www.lighthouse3d.com/opengl/glut/index.php?5

GLUT_KEY_LEFT   Left function key
GLUT_KEY_RIGHT  Right function key
GLUT_KEY_UP     Up function key
GLUT_KEY_DOWN   Down function key

 

void processSpecialKeys(int key, int x, int y) {

switch(key) {
    case GLUT_KEY_F1 : 
            red = 1.0; 
            green = 0.0; 
            blue = 0.0; break;
    case GLUT_KEY_F2 : 
            red = 0.0; 
            green = 1.0; 
            blue = 0.0; break;
    case GLUT_KEY_F3 : 
            red = 0.0; 
            green = 0.0; 
            blue = 1.0; break;
}
}

Answer 3

Really the answer to this question depends on what operating system and programming language you are using. There is no "ASCII code" per se. The operating system detects you hit an arrow key and triggers an event that programs can capture. For example, on modern Windows machines, you would get a WM_KEYUP or WM_KEYDOWN event. It passes a 16-bit value usually to determine which key was pushed.

Answer 4

There is no real ascii codes for these keys as such, you will need to check out the scan codes for these keys, known as Make and Break key codes as per helppc's information. The reason the codes sounds 'ascii' is because the key codes are handled by the old BIOS interrupt 0x16 and keyboard interrupt 0x9.

                 Normal Mode            Num lock on
                 Make    Break        Make          Break
Down arrow       E0 50   E0 D0     E0 2A E0 50   E0 D0 E0 AA
Left arrow       E0 4B   E0 CB     E0 2A E0 4B   E0 CB E0 AA
Right arrow      E0 4D   E0 CD     E0 2A E0 4D   E0 CD E0 AA
Up arrow         E0 48   E0 C8     E0 2A E0 48   E0 C8 E0 AA

Hence by looking at the codes following E0 for the Make key code, such as 0x50, 0x4B, 0x4D, 0x48 respectively, that is where the confusion arise from looking at key-codes and treating them as 'ascii'... the answer is don't as the platform varies, the OS varies, under Windows it would have virtual key code corresponding to those keys, not necessarily the same as the BIOS codes, VK_UP, VK_DOWN, VK_LEFT, VK_RIGHT.. this will be found in your C++'s header file windows.h, as I recall in the SDK's include folder.

Do not rely on the key-codes to have the same 'identical ascii' codes shown here as the Operating system will reprogram the entire BIOS code in whatever the OS sees fit, naturally that would be expected because since the BIOS code is 16bit, and the OS (nowadays are 32bit protected mode), of course those codes from the BIOS will no longer be valid.

Hence the original keyboard interrupt 0x9 and BIOS interrupt 0x16 would be wiped from the memory after the BIOS loads it and when the protected mode OS starts loading, it would overwrite that area of memory and replace it with their own 32 bit protected mode handlers to deal with those keyboard scan codes.

Here is a code sample from the old days of DOS programming, using Borland C v3:

#include <bios.h>
int getKey(void){
    int key, lo, hi;
    key = bioskey(0);
    lo = key & 0x00FF;
    hi = (key & 0xFF00) >> 8;
    return (lo == 0) ? hi + 256 : lo;
}

This routine actually, returned the codes for up, down is 328 and 336 respectively, (I do not have the code for left and right actually, this is in my old cook book!) The actual scancode is found in the lo variable. Keys other than the A-Z,0-9, had a scan code of 0 via the bioskey routine.... the reason 256 is added, because variable lo has code of 0 and the hi variable would have the scan code and adds 256 on to it in order not to confuse with the 'ascii' codes...