---
title: charactersIgnoringModifiers
framework: appkit
role: symbol
role_heading: Instance Property
path: appkit/nsevent/charactersignoringmodifiers
---

# charactersIgnoringModifiers

The characters generated by a key event as if no modifier key (except for Shift) applies.

## Declaration

```swift
var charactersIgnoringModifiers: String? { get }
```

## Discussion

Discussion Raises an NSInternalInconsistencyException if accessed on a non-key event. This property is set to the non-modifier key character pressed for dead keys, such as Option-e. For example, Option-e (no shift key) returns an “e” for this method, whereas the characters property returns an empty string. This property is useful for determining “basic” key values in a hardware-independent manner, enabling such features as keyboard equivalents defined in terms of modifier keys plus character keys. For example, to determine if the user typed Alt-S, you don’t have to know whether Alt-S generates a German double ess, an integral sign, or a section symbol. You simply examine the string contained by this property along with the event’s modifier flags, checking for “s” and NSAlternateKeyMask. For a list of constants corresponding to commonly-used Unicode characters, see NSText.

## See Also

### Related Documentation

- [keyEvent(with:location:modifierFlags:timestamp:windowNumber:context:characters:charactersIgnoringModifiers:isARepeat:keyCode:)](appkit/nsevent/keyevent(with:location:modifierflags:timestamp:windownumber:context:characters:charactersignoringmodifiers:isarepeat:keycode:).md)
- [modifierFlags](appkit/nsevent/modifierflags-swift.property.md)

### Getting key event information

- [characters](appkit/nsevent/characters.md)
- [keyCode](appkit/nsevent/keycode.md)
- [characters(byApplyingModifiers:)](appkit/nsevent/characters(byapplyingmodifiers:).md)
- [keyRepeatDelay](appkit/nsevent/keyrepeatdelay.md)
- [keyRepeatInterval](appkit/nsevent/keyrepeatinterval.md)
- [specialKey](appkit/nsevent/specialkey-swift.property.md)
- [Function-Key Unicode Values](appkit/function-key-unicode-values.md)
- [NSEvent.SpecialKey](appkit/nsevent/specialkey-swift.struct.md)
- [isARepeat](appkit/nsevent/isarepeat.md)