Send A_ThisHotkey with AutoHotKey

Question

I have the following AutoHotKey script that uses A_ThisHotkey:

spamLimit(limitTime)
{
    send %A_ThisHotkey%
}

p::spamLimit(500)

How comes pressing P doesn't send the letter p but instead open the following window

?

Answer 1

It is simply looping p -> start the command associated with the p hotkey -> send p -> start the command associated with the p hotkey -> send p -> …

To prevent this behavior, you can use the command Hotkey to temporarily disable the hotkey. Example:

spamLimit(limitTime)
{

    Hotkey, %A_ThisHotkey%, off   
    send %A_ThisHotkey%
}

p::spamLimit(500)

Another solution is using $ when defining the command, which forces the hook in the hotkey, i.e. disallows the hotkey to be triggered by its own send commands and generally most other virtual (non-physical) key presses. Example (one needs to use the function StringReplace, otherwise it outputs $p instead of p.):

spamLimit(limitTime)
{
    StringReplace, key, A_ThisHotkey, $, , All
    send %key%
    sleep limitTime    
}

$p::spamLimit(500)