SDET Blueprint

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.RETURN refers to the Return key . Keys.ENTER refers 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 ...