You can get the key that was pressed either as a key character (which is a Unicode character) or as a key code (a special value representing a particular key on the keyboard).

component.addKeyListener(new MyKeyListener());

    public class MyKeyListener extends KeyAdapter {

        public void keyPressed(KeyEvent evt) {

            // Check for key characters.

            if (evt.getKeyChar() == 'a') {
process(evt.getKeyChar());

            }

            // Check for key codes.

            if (evt.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_HOME) {
process(evt.getKeyCode());

            }

        }

    }