Onkeydown which key javascript

Properties: constructor global ignoreCase lastIndex multiline source Methods: compile exec test toString. Report Error. Your message has been sent to W3Schools. W3Schools is optimized for learning and training. Examples might be simplified to improve reading and learning. Tutorials, references, and examples are constantly reviewed to avoid errors, but we cannot warrant full correctness of all content.

While using W3Schools, you agree to have read and accepted our terms of use , cookie and privacy policy. The keyboard event types we need to focus on. The keyboard event types we may not ever need. Which properties you need in practice and how different browsers handle them. What is deprecated, and what's in use. A playground to try things out as we learn. Finally, the current list of key codes for reference and future use.

Hope you enjoy it. The KeyboardEvent interface and the event types The KeyboardEvent interface provides information using the defined constants, properties, and a single method as of January KeyboardEvent Hierarchy There are primarily three keyboard event types, keydown , keypress and, keyup. I have pressed the key, a while handling the keyup event Try This Interactive Keyboard Event Playground Before we go any further, how about a playground to explore all the keyboard events, their properties, characteristics, and so on?

The keyboard events are: keydown : It fires when any key is pressed down. For example, if you press the key a , this event will fire as the key a produces a character value of On the other hand, this event will not fire when you press the shift key as it doesn't produce a character value.

If all three events are attached to a DOM element, the firing order would be: First, keydown Next, keypress with the condition stated above Last, keyup Among these events, the most used Keyboard event is or, should be keydown because: The keydown event has the maximum coverage of keys to produce the contextual information. The keypress event works only for a subset of the keys. You can't capture the Alt, Ctrl, Shift, Meta, and other similar key events with a keypress. This also means that we can not fire the keypress event with key combinations like Ctrl Z , Shift Tab , and so on.

Moreover, the keypress event has been deprecated. This is a big enough reason to avoid it. While both keydown and keyup events cover all the keys and are well supported by most browsers, there are a few differences that push keydown ahead of keyup. The keydown event fires before the browser processes the key, whereas the keyup event fires after the browser processes the key.

If you cancel a keydown event say, using event. In case of the keyup event, the browser's action will not be canceled even when you have canceled the event. How to use the KeyboardEvent properties in practice This is the billion dollar question! It depends on: The browser support for your application How legacy is your application code is and how much are you willing to refactor? The value is true when Alt key is pressed.

The value is true when Control key is pressed. The value is true when Shift key is pressed. The value is true when any of the Meta keys are pressed.

No code Code value of the Physical Key. No key The actual value of the key pressed. No charCode Returns the Unicode value. This has been deprecated and we should use the key property instead. Yes keyCode Returns the neumeric code of the pressed value. Yes which Returns the neumeric code of the pressed value. Yes The last three properties are deprecated and you should use the key property instead. Modifier Keys The modifier keys are the special keys on your keyboard that modify the default behavior of the other keys.

It's not a ghoulish property. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. The Overflow Blog. Does ES6 make JavaScript frameworks obsolete?

Podcast Do polyglots have an edge when it comes to mastering programming Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. Visit chat. Linked 8. Related Hot Network Questions. Question feed. Stack Overflow works best with JavaScript enabled.