Why DateTimePicker won't trigger keyDown and KeyPress events with the tab key? - vb.net

Question

Fellows, I am having this problem - the DateTimePicker won't trigger KeyDown and KeyPress events with the tab key (other keys are working fine, and the keyUp event as well, although it triggers after "arriving" at the DateTimePicker after pressing tab at the previous control focused). I'm using .net 4.6.1, Visual Basic and VS 2017.
What I'm trying to do -> Go to month and year directly on DateTimePicker in C# (Go to month and year directly on DateTimePicker)
Code I'm using:
Private Sub DateTimePicker1_KeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles DateTimePicker1.KeyDown
If e.KeyCode = Keys.Tab Then
e.Handled = True
MsgBox("TAB DOWN")
End If
End Sub
Private Sub DateTimePicker1_KeyPress(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyPressEventArgs) Handles DateTimePicker1.KeyPress
e.Handled = True
MsgBox("tab press")
End Sub
Private Sub DateTimePicker1_KeyUp(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles DateTimePicker1.KeyUp
If e.KeyCode = Keys.Tab Then
MsgBox("TAB UP")
e.Handled = True
End If
End Sub
Any clues?

Answer 1

The Tab key is used for navigation. Moving the focus from one control to another. So your KeyDown event handler can never see it, the keystroke is intercepted and used before that. You could subscribe the PreviewKeyDown event and set the e.IsInputKey = true as a workaround, check the MSDN sample code in the linked article for code.
But it is the wrong event to use anyway, you'd still want this to work when the user changes focus with the mouse instead of the keyboard. So use the Enter event instead.
Do beware that both approaches have the same problem, the focus might already be on the month part from previous usage of the control so now your code will incorrectly move it to the year part. And you can't find out what part has the focus, that is up a creek without a good paddle. A very ugly workaround for that is to change the Format property, and back, that forces the control to re-create the control window and that always resets the focus. Use BeginInvoke() to run that code. Perhaps more constructively, consider to just not display the day if you are only interested in month+year, CustomFormat property.
Sample code that implements the focus hack:
Private Sub DateTimePicker1_Enter(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles DateTimePicker1.Enter
Me.BeginInvoke(
New Action(Sub()
'' Hack to reset focus
DateTimePicker1.Format = DateTimePickerFormat.Long
DateTimePicker1.Format = DateTimePickerFormat.Short
DateTimePicker1.Focus()
SendKeys.Send("{Right}")
End Sub))
End Sub

Answer 2

It's not the right answer to this question, although it helps as well. If you want to just make the tab behave as the right key when inside a DateTimePicker, a good (sketchy) way to do is:
Private i = 2
Protected Overrides Function ProcessTabKey(ByVal forward As Boolean) As Boolean
Dim ctl As Control = Me.ActiveControl
If ctl IsNot Nothing AndAlso TypeOf ctl Is DateTimePicker And i <> 0 Then
SendKeys.Send("{Right}")
i -= 1
Return True
End If
i = 2
Return MyBase.ProcessTabKey(forward)
End Function

Answer 3

You need to override ProcessCmdKey function
Private isTab As Boolean = False
Private isShiftTab As Boolean = False
Protected Overrides Function ProcessCmdKey(ByRef msg As Message, ByVal keyData As Keys) As Boolean
If keyData = Keys.Tab Then
isTab = True
'Do something with it.
Else
isTab = False
End If
Return MyBase.ProcessCmdKey(msg, keyData)
End Function