KEYDOWN Function in Pygame

Maxim Maeder May 11, 2022

Pygame Pygame Function

This short tutorial shows how to use KEYDOWN in Pygame.

the `KEYDOWN` Function in Pygame

Using the KEYDOWN function, you capture the moment the key was pressed down, and it is a constant. We test it against the event types returned by the pygame.event.get() method.

for event in pygame.event.get():
    if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
        pygame.quit()
        sys.exit()
    elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
        # your code
        pass

There’ll be no output when the key is held down. We have two options to change that.

We can call the pygame.key.set_repeat(delay) method and pass it the time in milliseconds, after which the event should be called again if held down. Then it will fire after pressing down after the amount of time we specified.

It is not best practice to do it this way, and it’s better to use pygame.key.get_pressed and check for the key portrayed below.

keys = pygame.key.get_pressed()
if keys[pygame.K_w]:
    print("W Pressed")

Complete Code:

# Imports
import sys
import pygame

# Configuration
pygame.init()
fps = 60
fpsClock = pygame.time.Clock()
width, height = 640, 480
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((width, height))

pygame.key.set_repeat(10)

# Game loop.
while True:
    screen.fill((20, 20, 20))
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            pygame.quit()
            sys.exit()
        elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
            # your code
            pass

    keys = pygame.key.get_pressed()
    if keys[pygame.K_w]:
        print("W Pressed")

    pygame.display.flip()
    fpsClock.tick(fps)

Author: Maxim Maeder

Hi, my name is Maxim Maeder, I am a young programming enthusiast looking to have fun coding and teaching you some things about programming.

GitHub

the KEYDOWN Function in Pygame

Related Article - Pygame Function

the `KEYDOWN` Function in Pygame