Question

Can I determine which key was previously pressed?

$("#divex").keypress(getKey);

    function getKey(e)
    {
       //alert previous key pressed to e ???
       alert(e.which); //gets current key ascii code
    }

Answer 1

You can store it in a variable:

var prevKey = null;

$("#divex").keypress(getKey);

function getKey(e)
{
   if (prevKey !== null) alert(prevKey);
   prevKey = e.which;
   alert(e.which); //gets current key ascii code
}