Send special character with SendKeys

Question

I am using textboxes to send text via SendKeys, but when I insert special characters in the textbox, my application crashes. For example, when I put in a '+' in the textbox, I get this error: SendKeys string '+' is not valid.

I need a solution to send special characters with SendKeys, this is a part of my code:

SendKeys.Send(dropDownEffectsLeft1.SelectedItem.ToString() + dropDownEffectsRight1.SelectedItem.ToString() + txt1.Text);

It's all about the textbox called txt1

I think I need something like a Regex to check if my txt contains any special characters, and that I will do with:

Regex specialChar = new Regex(@"^[[email protected]]*$");

I really appreciate your help.

Answer 1

From MSDN SendKeys:

The plus sign (+), caret (^), percent sign (%), tilde (~), and parentheses () have special meanings to SendKeys. To specify one of these characters, enclose it within braces ({}). For example, to specify the plus sign, use "{+}". To specify brace characters, use "{{}" and "{}}". Brackets ([ ]) have no special meaning to SendKeys, but you must enclose them in braces. In other applications, brackets do have a special meaning that might be significant when dynamic data exchange (DDE) occurs.

Code

So you just need a regex to replace those characters:

string txt = Regex.Replace(txt1.Text, "[+^%~()]", "{$0}");
SendKeys.Send(txt);

Test

I tested the code and I have an online test you can check out for the regex [+^%~()]

• Input: Plus + Caret ^ Percent % Tilde ~ Parenthis ( )
• Output Plus {+} Caret {^} Percent {%} Tilde {~} Parenthis {(} {)}