jQuery check if pressed key is printable

Question

By using jQuery keydown i'm able to get the target and pressed keyCode

I wanted to check it the pressing key is PRINTABLE KEY

So I used e.key, but this doesn't work in all browsers

Results for e.key:

Mozilla FireFox : MozPrintableKey
Google Chome: undefined
IE: undefined

Is there a all browser compatible way to check if pressing key is printable?

you can use the keypress event... it is fired if a printanble character is pressed — Arun P Johny, Dec 14 '13 at 11:05
Note that a "pressed key" may be printable sometimes and not others. E.g., "V" is printable, but ctrl-V is paste which may or may not add printable characters depending on what the clipboard contains at the time. — nnnnnn, Dec 14 '13 at 11:13
@ArunPJohny but keypress will not detect non printable keys like tab, control etc.. — sravis, Dec 14 '13 at 11:13
Now what is "printable"? Different fonts have different characters that able to be rendered and printed. — Qantas 94 Heavy, Dec 14 '13 at 11:18
Is this link helpful http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4194163/detect-printable-keys — Abhishek, Dec 14 '13 at 11:31

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 14 '13 at 13:10

You can define a printable key hash list,if you want it work in all browsers

var printableTable = {
  65:a,
  66:b,
  67:c
  ....
}
var el = document.getElementById("id");
el.onkeypress = function(e) {
    e = e || window.event;
    var keyCode = e.keyCode||e.which;
    if (keyCode in printableTable) {
        alert('this is printableTable!')
    }
});

jQuery check if pressed key is printable

1 Answers1