Simulating key press events in Mac OS X

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Here’s code to simulate a Cmd–S action:

CGKeyCode inputKeyCode = kVK_ANSI_S;
CGEventSourceRef source = CGEventSourceCreate(kCGEventSourceStateCombinedSessionState);
CGEventRef saveCommandDown = CGEventCreateKeyboardEvent(source, inputKeyCode, YES);
CGEventSetFlags(saveCommandDown, kCGEventFlagMaskCommand);
CGEventRef saveCommandUp = CGEventCreateKeyboardEvent(source, inputKeyCode, NO);

CGEventPost(kCGAnnotatedSessionEventTap, saveCommandDown);
CGEventPost(kCGAnnotatedSessionEventTap, saveCommandUp);

CFRelease(saveCommandUp);
CFRelease(saveCommandDown);
CFRelease(source);

A CGKeyCode is nothing more than an unsigned integer:

typedef uint16_t CGKeyCode;  //From CGRemoteOperation.h

Your real issue will be turning a character (probably an NSString) into a keycode. Fortunately, the Shortcut Recorder project has code that will do just that in the SRKeyCodeTransformer.m file. It’s great for transforming a string to a keycode and back again.

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