CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptjquerykeypress
RedBassett
RedBassett

Reputation: 3587

jQuery Keypress Arrow Keys

I'm attempting to capture arrow key presses in jQuery, but no events are being triggered.

$(function(){
    $('html').keypress(function(e){
        console.log(e);
    });
});

This generates events for alphanumeric keys, but delete, arrow keys, etc generate no event.

What am I doing wrong to not be capturing those?

Upvotes: 86

Views: 121769

Answers (6)

Shlomi Hassid
Shlomi Hassid

Reputation: 6596

You should use .keydown() because .keypress() will ignore "Arrows", for catching the key type use e.which

Press the result screen to focus (bottom right on fiddle screen) and then press arrow keys to see it work.

Notes:

  1. .keypress() will never be fired with Shift, Esc, and Delete but .keydown() will.
  2. Actually .keypress() in some browser will be triggered by arrow keys but its not cross-browser so its more reliable to use .keydown().

More useful information

  1. You can use .which Or .keyCode of the event object - Some browsers won't support one of them but when using jQuery its safe to use the both since jQuery standardizes things. (I prefer .which never had a problem with).
  2. To detect a ctrl | alt | shift | META press with the actual captured key you should check the following properties of the event object - They will be set to TRUE if they were pressed:

  3. Finally - here are some useful key codes ( For a full list - keycode-cheatsheet ):

    • Enter: 13
    • Up: 38
    • Down: 40
    • Right: 39
    • Left: 37
    • Esc: 27
    • SpaceBar: 32
    • Ctrl: 17
    • Alt: 18
    • Shift: 16

Upvotes: 195

Bhaskara Arani
Bhaskara Arani

Reputation: 1657

left = 37,up = 38, right = 39,down = 40

$(document).keydown(function(e) {
switch(e.which) {
    case 37:
    $( "#prev" ).click();
    break;

    case 38:
    $( "#prev" ).click();
    break;

    case 39:
    $( "#next" ).click();
    break;

    case 40:
    $( "#next" ).click();
    break;

    default: return;
}
e.preventDefault();

});

Upvotes: 5

Bhary
Bhary

Reputation: 569

$(document).on( "keydown",  keyPressed);

function keyPressed (e){
    e = e || window.e;
    var newchar = e.which || e.keyCode;
    alert(newchar)
}

Upvotes: -1

suhailvs
suhailvs

Reputation: 21680

You can check wether an arrow key is pressed by:

$(document).keydown(function(e){
    if (e.keyCode > 36 && e.keyCode < 41) 
      alert( "arrowkey pressed" );          
});

jsfiddle demo

Upvotes: 11

Tatha
Tatha

Reputation: 137

Please refer the link from JQuery

http://api.jquery.com/keypress/

It says

The keypress event is sent to an element when the browser registers keyboard input. This is similar to the keydown event, except that modifier and non-printing keys such as Shift, Esc, and delete trigger keydown events but not keypress events. Other differences between the two events may arise depending on platform and browser.

That means you can not use keypress in case of arrows.

Upvotes: 3

Harsha Venkataramu
Harsha Venkataramu

Reputation: 2904

$(document).keydown(function(e) {
    console.log(e.keyCode);
});

Keypress events do detect arrow keys, but not in all browsers. So it's better to use keydown.

These are keycodes you should be getting in your console log:

  • left = 37
  • up = 38
  • right = 39
  • down = 40

Upvotes: 34

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