[jquery] Capturing "Delete" Keypress with jQuery

When using the example code from the jQuery documentation for the keypress event handler, I'm unable to capture the Delete key. The snippet below is going to log 0 when the Delete key is pressed in FireFox:

$(document).keypress(function(e) {
    console.log(e.which);       
});

Seems there's gotta be a way to capture the Delete key, but it's an ambiguous term so Google isn't proving to be much help with it.

This question is related to jquery keypress

The answer is


event.key === "Delete"

More recent and much cleaner: use event.key. No more arbitrary number codes!

NOTE: The old properties (.keyCode and .which) are Deprecated.

document.addEventListener('keydown', function(event) {
    const key = event.key; // const {key} = event; ES6+
    if (key === "Delete") {
        // Do things
    }
});

Mozilla Docs

Supported Browsers


Javascript Keycodes

  • e.keyCode == 8 for backspace
  • e.keyCode == 46 for forward backspace or delete button in PC's

Except this detail Colin & Tod's answer is working.


$('html').keyup(function(e){
    if(e.keyCode == 46) {
        alert('Delete key released');
    }
});

Source: javascript char codes key codes from www.cambiaresearch.com