JS Keyboard Events
When the user hits the keyboard, the order of events being fired is:
- (on)keydown – may act upon or cancel the keystroke – the only way to catch special keys such as shift, ctrl, del – gets the key-code on event.which or event.keyCode
- (on)keypress – may act upon, cancel or modify (only IE) the keystroke – this event is repeated as long as the key is held down – gets the ASCII-code on event.which or event.keyCode
- (on)textInput – also called on clipboard paste – as of 2010, only supported by webkit browsers
- (on)keyup – may act upon release of the key – too late to do anything about it
Some browsers also support the event.charCode property, which will return the ASCII code of the key in ALL handlers. The DOM level 3 specs introduce the properties event.keyIdentifier, which holds a string with the key´s name, and event.keyLocation, which holds a number for the key´s placement.
Values of event.keyIdentifier
| key code | short name | DOM3 name (string) |
|---|
| | Ac | Alphanumeric |
| | Again | Again |
| | AlCs | AllCandidates |
| 18 | Alt | Alt |
| 93 | Apps | Apps |
| 30 | At | Accept |
| | AtGh | AltGraph |
| 246 | Attn | Attn |
| 8 | BkSp | U+000008 |
| 166 | BrBk | BrowserBack |
| 167 | BrFd | BrowserForward |
| 171 | BrFs | BrowserFavorites |
| 172 | BrHe | BrowserHome |
| 168 | BrRh | BrowserRefresh |
| 170 | BrSh | BrowserSearch |
| 169 | BrSp | BrowserStop |
| | Ce | Compose |
| | CeIt | CodeInput |
| 17 | Cl | Control |
| 12 | Clear | Clear |
| 24 | Cncl | U+000018 |
| | Copy | Copy |
| 247 | Crsel | Crsel |
| 20 | CsLk | CapsLock |
| 28 | Ct | Convert |
| | Cut | Cut |
| 46 | Del | U+00007F |
| 40 | Down | Down |
| 43 | Ee | Execute |
| 249 | EeEf | EraseEof |
| 35 | End | End |
| 13 | Enter | Enter |
| 27 | Esc | U+00001B |
| 248 | Exsel | Exsel |
| 112 | F1 | F1 |
| 121 | F10 | F10 |
| 122 | F11 | F11 |
| 123 | F12 | F12 |
| 124 | F13 | F13 |
| 125 | F14 | F14 |
| 126 | F15 | F15 |
| 127 | F16 | F16 |
| 128 | F17 | F17 |
| 129 | F18 | F18 |
| 130 | F19 | F19 |
| 113 | F2 | F2 |
| 131 | F20 | F20 |
| 132 | F21 | F21 |
| 133 | F22 | F22 |
| 134 | F23 | F23 |
| 135 | F24 | F24 |
| 114 | F3 | F3 |
| 115 | F4 | F4 |
| 116 | F5 | F5 |
| 117 | F6 | F6 |
| 118 | F7 | F7 |
| 119 | F8 | F8 |
| 120 | F9 | F9 |
| | Find | Find |
| 24 | FlMe | FinalMode |
| | FlWh | FullWidth |
| | Ha | Hiragana |
| | HaMe | HanjaMode |
| 47 | Help | Help |
| | HfWh | HalfWidth |
| | HlMe | HangulMode |
| 36 | Home | Home |
| 45 | It | Insert |
| 23 | JaMe | JunjaMode |
| | JeHa | JapaneseHiragana |
| | JeKa | JapaneseKatakana |
| | JeRi | JapaneseRomaji |
| | Ka | Katakana |
| | KaMe | KanaMode |
| | KiMe | KanjiMode |
| 37 | Left | Left |
| 181 | LhAn1 | LaunchApplication1 |
| 182 | LhAn2 | LaunchApplication2 |
| 180 | LhMl | LaunchMail |
| 176 | MaNtTk | MediaNextTrack |
| 177 | MaPsTk | MediaPreviousTrack |
| 179 | MaPyPe | MediaPlayPause |
| 178 | MaSp | MediaStop |
| 31 | MeCe | ModeChange |
| 224 | Meta | Meta |
| 29 | Nt | Nonconvert |
| 144 | NumLk | NumLock |
| | Paste | Paste |
| 19 | Pause | Pause |
| 34 | PeDn | PageDown |
| 33 | PeUp | PageUp |
| 250 | Play | Play |
| 42 | Print |
| | Props | Props |
| 229 | Ps | Process |
| | PsCe | PreviousCandidate |
| 44 | PtSn | PrintScreen |
| 39 | Right | Right |
| | RnCs | RomanCharacters |
| 16 | Shift | Shift |
| 145 | Sl | Scroll |
| 95 | Sleep |
| 32 | Space | U+000020 |
| 41 | St | Select |
| | StMa | SelectMedia |
| | Stop | Stop |
| 9 | Tab | U+000009 |
| | Undo | Undo |
| 38 | Up | Up |
| 174 | VeDn | VolumeDown |
| 173 | VeMe | VolumeMute |
| 175 | VeUp | VolumeUp |
| 91/92 | Win | Win |
| 251 | Zoom | Zoom |
Values of event.keyIdentifier
| value | key location |
|---|
| 0 | default, eg. "A"~"Z", "%" (over 5), left-shift-key |
| 1 | side, eg. right-ctrl-key |
| 2 | keypad, eg. "0"~"9" (numeric pad), right-enter-key |