Element: keypress event

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.

Syntax

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

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

onkeypress = (event) => {};

Event type

A KeyboardEvent. Inherits from UIEvent and Event.

Event properties

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.
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.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.

Examples

addEventListener keypress example

This example logs the KeyboardEvent.code value whenever you press a key after focussing the <input> element.

html

<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}`;
}

onkeypress equivalent

input.onkeypress = logKey;

Specifications

Specification
UI Events # event-type-keypress
HTML Standard # handler-onkeypress

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser