Why autohotkey deos not send Ctrl-Space where Space is an input - autohotkey

Question

Consider the following assignment:
When I type - followed by a key, the result is Ctrl-key. This work for ordinary keys.
But when the key is whitespace, it does not work.
Any idea why this happens? And how to fix the code?
-::
Input, key, L1,{LCtrl}
send, ^{%key%}
return
Edit.
Try to run the above script a program which has Ctrl-Space as a shortcut to see that it does not work. In fact, if you press - followed by Space, the script is suppose to call Ctrl-Space but it is not the case. For example:
In Microsoft Excel or in Libreoffice Calc, Ctrl-Space can select the current column.
In Emacs Ctrl-Space is reserved for setting a Mark.

Answer 1

Use SendInput instead.
Tested in Excel to mimic ^a, ^x, ^v, ^space
-::
Input, key, L1,{LCtrl}
SendInput, ^%key%
Return
If you want to handle "special" keys, add those keys to the list of endkeys using this syntax
Input [, OutputVar, Options, EndKeys, MatchList]
And then check to see which endkey was pressed
Tested in Firefox to mimic ^PgDn, ^PgUp
Input, key, L1,{LCtrl}{PgUp}{PgDn}
If (ErrorLevel = "EndKey:PgUp") {
SendInput ^{PgUp}
}
Else If (ErrorLevel = "EndKey:PgDn") {
SendInput ^{PgDn}
}
Else If (ErrorLevel = "EndKey:LCtrl") {
Return ;assumed you just want to abort input with the control key
}
Else {
SendInput, ^%key%
}
Return