Element: keypress event
Deprecated: This feature is no longer recommended. Though some browsers might still support it, it may have already been removed from the relevant web standards, may be in the process of being dropped, or may only be kept for compatibility purposes. Avoid using it, and update existing code if possible; see the compatibility table at the bottom of this page to guide your decision. Be aware that this feature may cease to work at any time.
The keypress
event is fired when a key that produces a character value is pressed down.
Examples of keys that produce a character value are alphabetic, numeric, and punctuation keys. Examples of keys that don't produce a character value are modifier keys such as Alt, Shift, Ctrl, or Meta.
Warning: Since this event has been deprecated, you should use beforeinput
or keydown
instead.
Syntax
Use the event name in methods like addEventListener()
, or set an event handler property.
addEventListener("keypress", (event) => {});
onkeypress = (event) => {};
Event type
A KeyboardEvent
. Inherits from UIEvent
and Event
.
Event properties
This interface also inherits properties of its parents, UIEvent
and Event
.
KeyboardEvent.altKey
Read only-
Returns a boolean value that is
true
if the Alt (Option or ⌥ on macOS) key was active when the key event was generated. KeyboardEvent.code
Read only-
Returns a string with the code value of the physical key represented by the event.
KeyboardEvent.ctrlKey
Read only-
Returns a boolean value that is
true
if the Ctrl key was active when the key event was generated. KeyboardEvent.isComposing
Read only-
Returns a boolean value that is
true
if the event is fired between aftercompositionstart
and beforecompositionend
. KeyboardEvent.key
Read only-
Returns a string representing the key value of the key represented by the event.
KeyboardEvent.location
Read only-
Returns a number representing the location of the key on the keyboard or other input device. A list of the constants identifying the locations is shown in Keyboard locations.
KeyboardEvent.metaKey
Read only-
Returns a boolean value that is
true
if the Meta key (on Mac keyboards, the ⌘ Command key; on Windows keyboards, the Windows key (⊞)) was active when the key event was generated. KeyboardEvent.repeat
Read only-
Returns a boolean value that is
true
if the key is being held down such that it is automatically repeating. KeyboardEvent.shiftKey
Read only-
Returns a boolean value that is
true
if the Shift key was active when the key event was generated.
Examples
addEventListener keypress example
This example logs the KeyboardEvent.code
value whenever you press a key after focussing the <input>
element.
<div>
<label for="sample">Focus the input and type something:</label>
<input type="text" name="text" id="sample" />
</div>
<p id="log"></p>
const log = document.getElementById("log");
const input = document.querySelector("input");
input.addEventListener("keypress", logKey);
function logKey(e) {
log.textContent += ` ${e.code}`;
}
onkeypress equivalent
input.onkeypress = logKey;
Specifications
Specification |
---|
UI Events # event-type-keypress |
HTML Standard # handler-onkeypress |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser