Get a key from JTextArea

for listening changes into JTextComponent is there DocumentListener, if you have to need control over inputed Char, sings, whitespace chars or word(s) you have to implements DocumentFilter

notice for Chars reservated by programing language(s) you have to use double escapes,

\\( instead of (

or

\\{ instead of {

otherwise you get

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.util.regex.PatternSyntaxException: 
Illegal repetition

for example

import java.awt.*;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import javax.swing.text.*;

public class TextAreaTest extends JFrame {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    private JTextArea textArea;

    public TextAreaTest() {
        textArea = new JTextArea();
        textArea.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(60, 32));
        textArea.setOpaque(true);
        textArea.setLineWrap(true);
        textArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
        ((AbstractDocument) textArea.getDocument()).setDocumentFilter(new DocumentFilter() {

            @Override
            public void insertString(FilterBypass fb, int offset, String string, AttributeSet attr) throws BadLocationException {
                string = string.replaceAll("\\{", "\\{}");
                super.insertString(fb, offset, string, attr);
            }

            @Override
            public void replace(FilterBypass fb, int offset, int length, String text, AttributeSet attrs) throws BadLocationException {
                text = text.replaceAll("\\{", "\\{}");
                //TODO must do something here
                super.replace(fb, offset, length, text, attrs);
            }
        });

        textArea.getDocument().addDocumentListener(new DocumentListener() {

            @Override
            public void changedUpdate(DocumentEvent e) {
                update(e);
            }

            @Override
            public void insertUpdate(DocumentEvent e) {
                update(e);
            }

            @Override
            public void removeUpdate(DocumentEvent e) {
                update(e);
            }

            private void update(DocumentEvent e) {
                List<String> lines = getLines(textArea);
                String lastLine = lines.get(lines.size() - 1);
                int tabbedTextWidth = Utilities.getTabbedTextWidth(new Segment(
                        lastLine.toCharArray(), 0, lastLine.length()), textArea.getFontMetrics(textArea.getFont()), 0, null, 0);
                int lineHeight = getLineHeight(textArea);
                if (lines.size() * lineHeight > textArea.getHeight() || tabbedTextWidth > textArea.getWidth()) {
                    System.out.println("Too big! Should refuse the update!");
                }
            }
        });

        getContentPane().add(textArea);
    }

    private static List<String> getLines(JTextArea textArea) {
        int lineHeight = getLineHeight(textArea);
        List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
        for (int num = 0;; num++) {
            int i = textArea.viewToModel(new Point(0, num * lineHeight));
            int j = textArea.viewToModel(new Point(0, (num + 1) * lineHeight));
            if (i == 0 && j == 0) {
                continue;
            }
            if (textArea.getDocument().getLength() == i && i == j) {
                break;
            }
            String s = removeTrailingNewLine(textArea.getText().substring(i, j));
            list.add(s);
            //System.out.println(i + " " + j + " = " + s);
        }
        return list;
    }

    private static int getLineHeight(JTextArea textArea) {
        return textArea.getFontMetrics(textArea.getFont()).getHeight();
    }

    private static String removeTrailingNewLine(String s) {
        if (s.endsWith("\n")) {
            return s.substring(0, s.length() - 1);
        } else {
            return s;
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                TextAreaTest test = new TextAreaTest();
                test.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
                test.pack();
                test.setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }
}