CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptkeyboard
kasimir
kasimir

Reputation: 1554

Key code for common characters on international keyboards

Ok, capturing key codes from special symbols produces different results on keyboards with different layouts. But how about the 'common' characters, like a-z? If you have a QWERTY-keyboard, you'd get key code 81 when you type q. When you have an AZERTY-keyboard, do you get code 81 when you press a, since a is where q 'should' be? Or is the mapping done differently?

EDIT:

The answer I accepted is probably the best solution when you're capturing keys and want to be sure 'a' is really 'a', but as I explain in the comment underneath that, I still am curious how the key codes are 'translated' when using int'l keyboards. That is: sources suggest at least a-z should be consistent, but I cannot find support for this (or someone who actually tried).

Upvotes: 2

Views: 3498

Answers (1)

Tim Down
Tim Down

Reputation: 324727

If you use the keypress event rather than keyup or keydown then the problem goes away because in that event you get character codes rather than key codes.

Example:

document.onkeypress = function(e) {
    e = e || window.event;
    var charCode = (typeof e.which == "undefined") ? e.keyCode : e.which;
    alert( String.fromCharCode(charCode) );
};

And here's the definitive resource on key handling in JavaScript: http://unixpapa.com/js/key.html

Upvotes: 1

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