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.

Use the event name in methods like addEventListener(), or set an event handler property.

addEventListener("keypress", (event) => {});

onkeypress = (event) => {};

A KeyboardEvent. Inherits from 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}`;
}

• The Document interface, which the event also targets.
• Related events:
  • input
  • keydown
  • keyup