How do I pick up the Enter Key being pressed in JavaFX2?

Question

I have a TextField to enter a search term, and a button for "Go". But in JavaFX2, how would I make it so pressing the Enter Key in the TextField would perform an action?

Thanks :)

The Javadoc is a good source for such questions: http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/api/javafx/scene/control/TextField.html — Puce, Dec 14 '12 at 16:28
Aaah Stack Overflow, as the saying goes: "Give a person a fish and they eats for a day, but teach them to fish and and they'll eat for a lifetime." But a common SO response is more along the lines of: "I say, good sir, there is a place with books, look up fishing, study and practice hard, and 2 months from now you can eat." Well intentioned, but useless. — Malcolm Anderson, Apr 10 '21 at 22:48

score 81 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 09 '21 at 02:21

I'm assuming you want this to happen when the user presses enter only while the TextField has focus. You'll want use KeyEvent out of javafx.scene.input package and do something like this:

field.setOnKeyPressed(new EventHandler<KeyEvent>() {
    @Override
    public void handle(KeyEvent ke) {
        if (ke.getCode().equals(KeyCode.ENTER)) {
            doSomething();
        }
    }
});

Using lambda:

field.setOnKeyPressed( event -> {
  if( event.getCode() == KeyCode.ENTER ) {
    doSomething();
  }
} );

score 42 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 05 '16 at 18:53

42

You can use the onAction attribute of the TextField and bind it to a method in your controller.

@FXML
public void onEnter(ActionEvent ae){
   System.out.println("test") ;
}

And in your FXML file:

<TextField fx:id="textfield" layoutX="29.0" layoutY="298.0" onAction="#onEnter" prefWidth="121.0" />

edited Sep 05 '16 at 18:53

Adowrath

701
11
24

answered Dec 14 '12 at 15:44

Wottensprels

3,307
2
29
38

3

yes, the onAction method seems to be the way to go: http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/api/javafx/scene/control/TextField.html#onActionProperty -> +1 But you need to annotate the onEnter() method with @FXML when "binding" from FXML and it has to take an ActionEvent argument, AFAIK. – Puce Dec 14 '12 at 16:25
Note that I had to add `(ActionEvent actionEvent)` as a parameter on `onEnter` before it would work. – Erhannis Jun 23 '16 at 19:25

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 22 '15 at 17:34

9

You can try the following:

@FXML
public void buttonPressed(KeyEvent e)
{
    if(e.getCode().toString().equals("ENTER"))
    {
        //do something
    }
}

answered Oct 22 '15 at 17:34

Ishrak

509
1
9
17

11

better use: `ke.getCode() == KeyCode.ENTER` because it is an enum – user6133180 Mar 30 '16 at 06:48
This alone does not work, what is the FXML for this? – Essej Aug 05 '16 at 14:59

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 27 '16 at 09:13

3

Simply using "lambda expression" :

TextField textField = new TextField();
textField.setOnAction(e -> {
    // add your code to be run here
    System.out.println("textFile");
    });

answered Dec 27 '16 at 09:13

mhmdar

39
2

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 20 '16 at 19:45

This works:

@FXML public TextField txt;

@FXML
public void textAction(KeyEvent e){

    if(e.getCode().equals(KeyCode.ENTER))
        System.out.println(txt.getText());
}

If for some reason .getCode() is not working, make sure you import the library:

import javafx.scene.input.KeyEvent;

NOT

import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;

I got caught up on this and it was irritating. Im just passing this on for all those in the same boat.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 29 '18 at 18:57

0

On some keyboards you have to put additional tests to the '\n' and '\r' characters.

if(event.getCode().equals(KeyCode.ENTER) || event.getCharacter().getBytes()[0] == '\n' || event.getCharacter().getBytes()[0] == '\r') {
        // your action
    }

answered Jan 29 '18 at 18:57

Ailton F. Silva Amorim

81
1
4

How do I pick up the Enter Key being pressed in JavaFX2?

6 Answers6

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