KeyboardEvent: location property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The KeyboardEvent.location read-only property returns an unsigned long representing the location of the key on the keyboard or other input device.

Possible values are:

Constant Value Description
DOM_KEY_LOCATION_STANDARD 0 The key has only one version, or can't be distinguished between the left and right versions of the key, and was not pressed on the numeric keypad or a key that is considered to be part of the keypad.
DOM_KEY_LOCATION_LEFT 1 The key was the left-hand version of the key; for example, the left-hand Control key was pressed on a standard 101 key US keyboard. This value is only used for keys that have more than one possible location on the keyboard.
DOM_KEY_LOCATION_RIGHT 2 The key was the right-hand version of the key; for example, the right-hand Control key is pressed on a standard 101 key US keyboard. This value is only used for keys that have more than one possible location on the keyboard.
DOM_KEY_LOCATION_NUMPAD 3

The key was on the numeric keypad, or has a virtual key code that corresponds to the numeric keypad.

Note: When NumLock is locked, Firefox always returns DOM_KEY_LOCATION_NUMPAD for the keys on the numeric pad. Otherwise, when NumLock is unlocked and the keyboard actually has a numeric keypad, Firefox always returns DOM_KEY_LOCATION_NUMPAD too. On the other hand, if the keyboard doesn't have a keypad, such as on a notebook computer, some keys become Numpad only when NumLock is locked. When such keys fires key events, the location attribute value depends on the key. That is, it must not be DOM_KEY_LOCATION_NUMPAD.

Note: NumLock key's key events indicate DOM_KEY_LOCATION_STANDARD both on Firefox and Internet Explorer.

DOM_KEY_LOCATION_MOBILE 4

The key was on a mobile device; this can be on either a physical keypad or a virtual keyboard.

DOM_KEY_LOCATION_JOYSTICK 5

The key was a button on a game controller or a joystick on a mobile device.

Value

A number.

Examples

js
function keyEvent(event) {
  console.log(`Location of key pressed: ${event.location}`);
}

Specifications

Specification
UI Events
# dom-keyboardevent-location

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also