Question

I have the following code:

$('.field').keypress(function(event) {
    if (event.keyCode == 27) alert(event.keyCode);
});

I need to catch “Escape” pressing and do some actions. But now it code does’t work. I have tried to use this code:

$('.field').keypress(function(event) {
    alert(event.keyCode);
});

I was pressing by Escape button, but it didn’t work (I haven’t seen any alerts). Please, tell me, how can I fix it?

Answer 1

Use keydown or keyup rather than keypress. keypress only fires for keystrokes that result in characters, which (by convention) Esc doesn’t (even though some charsets, such as ASCII, do have a character called “escape”).

For more about handling keystrokes in JavaScript: JavaScript Madness: Keyboard Events