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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-15T11:18:03+00:00

<html> <head> <title>Test</title> <script type=text/javascript> function showChar(e) { if (e.keyCode != 16) { alert(

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<html>
<head>
<title>Test</title>

<script type="text/javascript">

function showChar(e) {
    if (e.keyCode != 16) {
        alert(
           "keyCode: " + e.keyCode + "\n"
          + "SHIFT key pressed: " + e.shiftKey + "\n"
        );
    }
}

</script>
</head>

<body onkeydown="showChar(event);">
<p>Press any character key, with or without holding down
 the SHIFT key.<br /></p>
</body>
</html>

How can I differentiate capital A from lowercase a in onkeydown event handler method? Above algorithm fires the same keyCode value. I need to detect the capital letters when they are pressed in onkeydown.

Note: The code contains an exception for SHIFT key. Otherwise it does not allow to type capital letters. BTW, I need to use onkeydown for my trial.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    It looks to me like you answered your own question. If you are detecting the SHIFT key, you can easily differentiate between capital and lowercase:

    if(e.shiftKey){
   alert("You pressed a CAPITAL letter with the code " + e.keyCode);
}else{
   alert("You pressed a LOWERCASE letter with the code " + e.keyCode);
}

    Or am I misunderstanding your question?

    Update: Upper case ASCII codes can easily be converted to lower case ASCII codes by adding 32, so all you need to do is this:

    <html>
<head>
<title>Test</title>

<script type="text/javascript">

function showChar(e){
  if(e.keyCode!=16){ // If the pressed key is anything other than SHIFT
        if(e.keyCode >= 65 && e.keyCode <= 90){ // If the key is a letter
            if(e.shiftKey){ // If the SHIFT key is down, return the ASCII code for the capital letter
                alert("ASCII Code: "+e.keyCode);
            }else{ // If the SHIFT key is not down, convert to the ASCII code for the lowecase letter
                alert("ASCII Code: "+(e.keyCode+32));
            }
        }else{
            alert("ASCII Code (non-letter): "+e.keyCode);
        }
  }
}

</script>
</head>

<body onkeydown="showChar(event);">
<p>Press any character key, with or without holding down
 the SHIFT key.<br /></p>
</body>
</html>

    Update 2: Try this:

    <html>
<head>
<title>Test</title>

<script type="text/javascript">

function showChar(e){
  if(e.keyCode!=16){ // If the pressed key is anything other than SHIFT
        c = String.fromCharCode(e.keyCode);
        if(e.shiftKey){ // If the SHIFT key is down, return the ASCII code for the capital letter
            alert("ASCII Code: "+e.keyCode+" Character: "+c);
        }else{ // If the SHIFT key is not down, convert to the ASCII code for the lowecase letter
            c = c.toLowerCase(c);
            alert("ASCII Code: "+c.charCodeAt(0)+" Character: "+c);
        }
  }
}

</script>
</head>

<body onkeydown="showChar(event);">
<p>Press any character key, with or without holding down
 the SHIFT key.<br /></p>
</body>
</html>
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