[javascript] How to know if .keyup() is a character key (jQuery)

How to know if .keyup() is a character key (jQuery)

$("input").keyup(function() {

if (key is a character) { //such as a b A b c 5 3 2 $ # ^ ! ^ * # ...etc not enter key or shift or Esc or space ...etc
/* Do stuff */
}

});

This question is related to javascript jquery events keyboard keycode

The answer is


I never liked the key code validation. My approach was to see if the input have text (any character), confirming that the user is entering text and no other characters

_x000D_
_x000D_
$('#input').on('keyup', function() {_x000D_
    var words = $(this).val();_x000D_
    // if input is empty, remove the word count data and return_x000D_
    if(!words.length) {_x000D_
        $(this).removeData('wcount');_x000D_
        return true;_x000D_
    }_x000D_
    // if word count data equals the count of the input, return_x000D_
    if(typeof $(this).data('wcount') !== "undefined" && ($(this).data('wcount') == words.length)){_x000D_
        return true;_x000D_
    }_x000D_
    // update or initialize the word count data_x000D_
    $(this).data('wcount', words.length);_x000D_
    console.log('user tiped ' + words);_x000D_
    // do you stuff..._x000D_
});
_x000D_
<html lang="en">_x000D_
  <head>_x000D_
  <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>_x000D_
  </head>_x000D_
  <body>_x000D_
  <input type="text" name="input" id="input">_x000D_
  </body>_x000D_
</html>
_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_


I wanted to do exactly this, and I thought of a solution involving both the keyup and the keypress events.

(I haven't tested it in all browsers, but I used the information compiled at http://unixpapa.com/js/key.html)

Edit: rewrote it as a jQuery plugin.

(function($) {
    $.fn.normalkeypress = function(onNormal, onSpecial) {
        this.bind('keydown keypress keyup', (function() {
            var keyDown = {}, // keep track of which buttons have been pressed
                lastKeyDown;
            return function(event) {
                if (event.type == 'keydown') {
                    keyDown[lastKeyDown = event.keyCode] = false;
                    return;
                }
                if (event.type == 'keypress') {
                    keyDown[lastKeyDown] = event; // this keydown also triggered a keypress
                    return;
                }

                // 'keyup' event
                var keyPress = keyDown[event.keyCode];
                if ( keyPress &&
                     ( ( ( keyPress.which >= 32 // not a control character
                           //|| keyPress.which == 8  || // \b
                           //|| keyPress.which == 9  || // \t
                           //|| keyPress.which == 10 || // \n
                           //|| keyPress.which == 13    // \r
                           ) &&
                         !( keyPress.which >= 63232 && keyPress.which <= 63247 ) && // not special character in WebKit < 525
                         !( keyPress.which == 63273 )                            && //
                         !( keyPress.which >= 63275 && keyPress.which <= 63277 ) && //
                         !( keyPress.which === event.keyCode && // not End / Home / Insert / Delete (i.e. in Opera < 10.50)
                            ( keyPress.which == 35  || // End
                              keyPress.which == 36  || // Home
                              keyPress.which == 45  || // Insert
                              keyPress.which == 46  || // Delete
                              keyPress.which == 144    // Num Lock
                              )
                            )
                         ) ||
                       keyPress.which === undefined // normal character in IE < 9.0
                       ) &&
                     keyPress.charCode !== 0 // not special character in Konqueror 4.3
                     ) {

                    // Normal character
                    if (onNormal) onNormal.call(this, keyPress, event);
                } else {
                    // Special character
                    if (onSpecial) onSpecial.call(this, event);
                }
                delete keyDown[event.keyCode];
            };
        })());
    };
})(jQuery);

This helped for me:

$("#input").keyup(function(event) {
        //use keyup instead keypress because:
        //- keypress will not work on backspace and delete
        //- keypress is called before the character is added to the textfield (at least in google chrome) 
        var searchText = $.trim($("#input").val());

        var c= String.fromCharCode(event.keyCode);
        var isWordCharacter = c.match(/\w/);
        var isBackspaceOrDelete = (event.keyCode == 8 || event.keyCode == 46);

        // trigger only on word characters, backspace or delete and an entry size of at least 3 characters
        if((isWordCharacter || isBackspaceOrDelete) && searchText.length > 2)
        { ...

You can't do this reliably with the keyup event. If you want to know something about the character that was typed, you have to use the keypress event instead.

The following example will work all the time in most browsers but there are some edge cases that you should be aware of. For what is in my view the definitive guide on this, see http://unixpapa.com/js/key.html.

$("input").keypress(function(e) {
    if (e.which !== 0) {
        alert("Charcter was typed. It was: " + String.fromCharCode(e.which));
    }
});

keyup and keydown give you information about the physical key that was pressed. On standard US/UK keyboards in their standard layouts, it looks like there is a correlation between the keyCode property of these events and the character they represent. However, this is not reliable: different keyboard layouts will have different mappings.


I'm not totally satisfied with the other answers given. They've all got some kind of flaw to them.

Using keyPress with event.which is unreliable because you can't catch a backspace or a delete (as mentioned by Tarl). Using keyDown (as in Niva's and Tarl's answers) is a bit better, but the solution is flawed because it attempts to use event.keyCode with String.fromCharCode() (keyCode and charCode are not the same!).

However, what we DO have with the keydown or keyup event is the actual key that was pressed (event.key). As far as I can tell, any key with a length of 1 is a character (number or letter) regardless of which language keyboard you're using. Please correct me if that's not true!

Then there's that very long answer from asdf. That might work perfectly, but it seems like overkill.


So here's a simple solution that will catch all characters, backspace, and delete. (Note: either keyup or keydown will work here, but keypress will not)

$("input").keydown(function(event) {

    var isWordCharacter = event.key.length === 1;
    var isBackspaceOrDelete = event.keyCode === 8 || event.keyCode === 46;

    if (isWordCharacter || isBackspaceOrDelete) {
        // do something
    }
});

If you only need to exclude out enter, escape and spacebar keys, you can do the following:

$("#text1").keyup(function(event) {
if (event.keyCode != '13' && event.keyCode != '27' && event.keyCode != '32') {
     alert('test');
   }
});

See it actions here.

You can refer to the complete list of keycode here for your further modification.


Examples related to javascript

need to add a class to an element How to make a variable accessible outside a function? Hide Signs that Meteor.js was Used How to create a showdown.js markdown extension Please help me convert this script to a simple image slider Highlight Anchor Links when user manually scrolls? Summing radio input values How to execute an action before close metro app WinJS javascript, for loop defines a dynamic variable name Getting all files in directory with ajax

Examples related to jquery

How to make a variable accessible outside a function? Jquery assiging class to th in a table Please help me convert this script to a simple image slider Highlight Anchor Links when user manually scrolls? Getting all files in directory with ajax Bootstrap 4 multiselect dropdown Cross-Origin Read Blocking (CORB) bootstrap 4 file input doesn't show the file name Jquery AJAX: No 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header is present on the requested resource how to remove json object key and value.?

Examples related to events

onKeyDown event not working on divs in React Detect click outside Angular component Angular 2 Hover event Global Events in Angular How to fire an event when v-model changes? Passing string parameter in JavaScript function Capture close event on Bootstrap Modal AngularJs event to call after content is loaded Remove All Event Listeners of Specific Type Jquery .on('scroll') not firing the event while scrolling

Examples related to keyboard

How do I check if a Key is pressed on C++ Move a view up only when the keyboard covers an input field Move textfield when keyboard appears swift Xcode iOS 8 Keyboard types not supported Xcode 6: Keyboard does not show up in simulator How to dismiss keyboard iOS programmatically when pressing return Detect key input in Python Getting Keyboard Input Press Keyboard keys using a batch file Keylistener in Javascript

Examples related to keycode

"A namespace cannot directly contain members such as fields or methods" Get the value of input text when enter key pressed What are the JavaScript KeyCodes? How to know if .keyup() is a character key (jQuery) Where can I find a list of Mac virtual key codes? Get Character value from KeyCode in JavaScript... then trim Where can I find a list of keyboard keycodes?