Snippets are us is down the road a ways. Here, we need to see all the code.
i tried several ways to use them but i can't.
So you posted a snippet of code that has nothing to do with an attempt to use the * and # keys on the keypad. Why?
Using Tools + Auto Format before posting code (at least you did that properly) would be a good idea. As would consistent placement of curly braces. I prefer the "on a line by themselves" placement, myself. Others don't.
When there are mutually exclusive blocks of code, if/else if/else works better than if/if/if