WM_MENUSELECT message

Sent to a menu's owner window when the user selects a menu item.

#define WM_MENUSELECT                   0x011F

Parameters

wParam

The low-order word specifies the menu item or submenu index. If the selected item is a command item, this parameter contains the identifier of the menu item. If the selected item opens a drop-down menu or submenu, this parameter contains the index of the drop-down menu or submenu in the main menu, and the lParam parameter contains the handle to the main menu; use the GetSubMenu function to get the menu handle to the drop-down menu or submenu.

The high-order word specifies one or more menu flags. This parameter can be one or more of the following values.

Value	Meaning
MF_BITMAP 0x00000004L	Item displays a bitmap.
MF_CHECKED 0x00000008L	Item is checked.
MF_DISABLED 0x00000002L	Item is disabled.
MF_GRAYED 0x00000001L	Item is grayed.
MF_HILITE 0x00000080L	Item is highlighted.
MF_MOUSESELECT 0x00008000L	Item is selected with the mouse.
MF_OWNERDRAW 0x00000100L	Item is an owner-drawn item.
MF_POPUP 0x00000010L	Item opens a drop-down menu or submenu.
MF_SYSMENU 0x00002000L	Item is contained in the window menu. The lParam parameter contains a handle to the menu associated with the message.

lParam

A handle to the main menu.

Return value

If an application processes this message, it should return zero.

Remarks

This message is sent to a menu's owner window when the user selects a menu item in an open menu, typically by mouse-over or keyboard navigation. If the menu is closed, this message is not sent when the user moves the mouse over a top-level menu item. This message is sent only after the menu is opened by the user clicking a top-level menu item or pressing the ALT key.

If the high-order word of wParam contains 0xFFFF and the lParam parameter contains NULL, the system has closed the menu.

Do not use the value -1 for the high-order word of wParam, because this value is specified as (UINT) HIWORD(wParam). Even though 0xFFFF might be interpreted as -1 in signed contexts, if the value is 0xFFFF, it would be interpreted as 0x0000FFFF, not -1, because of the cast to a UINT.

For example, this code checks for 0xFFFF, not -1:

case WM_MENUSELECT:
{
    UINT menuItem = LOWORD(wParam);
    UINT flags = HIWORD(wParam);
    HMENU hMenu = (HMENU)lParam;

    // Check for 0xFFFF, not -1.
    if (flags == 0xFFFF && hMenu == NULL) {
        // No menu item selected (menu closed).
        // ...
    }
    break;
}

Requirements

See also

Reference

GetSubMenu

HIWORD

LOWORD

Conceptual

Keyboard Accelerators