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.
Use the event name in methods like addEventListener()
, or set an event handler property.
addEventListener("keypress", (event) => {});
onkeypress = (event) => {};
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.
Warning: This ignores the user's keyboard layout, so that if the user presses the key at the "Y" position in a QWERTY keyboard layout (near the middle of the row above the home row), this will always return "KeyY", even if the user has a QWERTZ keyboard (which would mean the user expects a "Z" and all the other properties would indicate a "Z") or a Dvorak keyboard layout (where the user would expect an "F"). If you want to display the correct keystrokes to the user, you can use Keyboard.getLayoutMap()
.
-
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 after compositionstart
and before compositionend
.
-
KeyboardEvent.key
Read only
-
Returns a string representing the key value of the key represented by the event.
-
KeyboardEvent.locale
Read only
-
Returns a string representing a locale string indicating the locale the keyboard is configured for. This may be the empty string if the browser or device doesn't know the keyboard's locale.
Note: This does not describe the locale of the data being entered. A user may be using one keyboard layout while typing text in a different language.
-
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.
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}`;
}
input.onkeypress = logKey;