Question

How to detect Ctrl+V, Ctrl+C using JavaScript?

I need to restrict pasting in my textareas, end user should not copy and paste the content, user should only type text in textarea.

How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

I just did this out of interest. I agree it’s not the right thing to do, but I think it should be the op’s decision… Also the code could easily be extended to add functionality, rather than take it away (like a more advanced clipboard, or Ctrl+S triggering a server-side save).

$(document).ready(function() {
    var ctrlDown = false,
        ctrlKey = 17,
        cmdKey = 91,
        vKey = 86,
        cKey = 67;

    $(document).keydown(function(e) {
        if (e.keyCode == ctrlKey || e.keyCode == cmdKey) ctrlDown = true;
    }).keyup(function(e) {
        if (e.keyCode == ctrlKey || e.keyCode == cmdKey) ctrlDown = false;
    });

    $(".no-copy-paste").keydown(function(e) {
        if (ctrlDown && (e.keyCode == vKey || e.keyCode == cKey)) return false;
    });
    
    // Document Ctrl + C/V 
    $(document).keydown(function(e) {
        if (ctrlDown && (e.keyCode == cKey)) console.log("Document catch Ctrl+C");
        if (ctrlDown && (e.keyCode == vKey)) console.log("Document catch Ctrl+V");
    });
});

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<h3>Ctrl+c Ctrl+v disabled</h3>
<textarea class="no-copy-paste"></textarea>
<br><br>
<h3>Ctrl+c Ctrl+v allowed</h3>
<textarea></textarea>

Also just to clarify, this script requires the jQuery library.

Codepen demo

EDIT: removed 3 redundant lines (involving e.which) thanks to Tim Down’s suggestion (see comments)

EDIT: added support for Macs (CMD key instead of Ctrl)