How to define a variable which gives the last inserted character of the current buffer?

Question

Is there a built-in variable which gives the last inserted character of a buffer (inserted by self-insert-command)? Note that the cursor is not necessarily at the place of the last insertion.

If there is not such a variable, any other solution for defining a variable which determines this character would be helpful.

Answer 1

Here's a solution implementing what I've suggested in my earlier comment:

(defvar my-last-inserted-character nil
  "Last character inserted, buffer-local.")
(make-variable-buffer-local 'my-last-inserted-character)

(defun my-update-last-inserted-character ()
  (setq my-last-inserted-character (concat (this-command-keys))))

(add-hook 'post-self-insert-hook 'my-update-last-inserted-character)

It would be better to wrap it up in a minor mode before anyone gets the idea to package this.

Answer 2

Would last-command-event in post-self-insert-hook do what you want?

e.g.:

(add-hook 'post-self-insert-hook (lambda () (print last-command-event)))