When you're automating keyboard interactions with Selenium WebDriver, you're bound to encounter both Keys.RETURN and Keys.ENTER. At a glance, they might seem identical—and in many cases, they behave that way too. But under the hood, there’s a subtle, nerdy distinction that can make all the difference when fine-tuning your test scripts.
In this post, we’ll break down these two key constants, when to use which, and why understanding the difference (even if minor) might give you an edge in crafting more accurate and resilient automation.
🎹 The Subtle Difference
On a standard physical keyboard, there are typically two keys that look like Enter:
- Enter key on the numeric keypad.
- Return key on the main keyboard (near the letters).
Historically:
Keys.RETURNrefers to the Return key.Keys.ENTERrefers to the Enter key.
That’s right—the distinction comes from old-school typewriters and legacy keyboard design. Return meant returning the carriage to the beginning of the line (think newline), while Enter eventually became the universal key for confirming input.
🧪 What Does Selenium Do With This?
Under the hood, both Keys.RETURN and Keys.ENTER generally send the same keycode—meaning in most modern browsers, they behave identically. That means for things like:
element.sendKeys(Keys.RETURN);
or
element.sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);
You'll see nearly identical results.
But here's where nuance matters.
🧭 When Does the Difference Matter?
There are a few edge cases where being precise can help:
1. Form Submissions
Many web forms are designed to respond specifically to a Return key. If you’re testing form behaviors, especially in older web apps or JavaScript-heavy environments, Keys.RETURN might trigger the submission more reliably.
2. Keybinding-Sensitive Apps
Modern web apps like Google Docs or in-browser code editors (e.g. CodeMirror, Monaco) may distinguish between the two keys for features like running code, inserting new lines, or submitting input. If you're mimicking user shortcuts, it helps to simulate exactly which key was pressed.
3. Accessibility and International Keyboards
For certain locales or accessibility frameworks, the distinction between Enter and Return still holds. Test automation aimed at WCAG compliance or global audiences may benefit from accurately mimicking both.
✅ Best Practice
If you’re simulating form submission, prefer Keys.RETURN for clarity and historical alignment.
If you’re just triggering generic behavior that fires on any "Enter-like" action, Keys.ENTER is perfectly acceptable.
You can even A/B test them both in tricky situations—especially if you're trying to debug inconsistent behavior across browsers.
📚 Bonus Tip: Combining sendKeys()
Here's how you can use both in context:
WebElement input = driver.findElement(By.id("searchBox"));
input.sendKeys("Selenium WebDriver");
input.sendKeys(Keys.RETURN); // or Keys.ENTER
Still unsure? Try them both. Sometimes the answer lies in empirical results more than spec sheets.
🚀 Wrap-Up
So, are Keys.RETURN and Keys.ENTER interchangeable? Usually. But in the wild world of web development, edge cases do exist—and knowing the difference gives you a slight but meaningful edge.
If you're building tests that mirror real user behavior as closely as possible, these little distinctions help polish your automation to a professional shine.
Have a case where one worked and the other didn’t? I’d love to hear your stories. 👇 Let's geek out in the comments!
Let me know if you'd like a version with formatting for your CMS (like Markdown or HTML), or want to expand this into a full Selenium keyboard shortcut guide!
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