Question

I need to detect when someone hits “enter” in text inputs with a specific class.

My jQuery is as follows:

$('input.large').keypress(function (e) {
    if(e.which ==13)
        console.log("pressed enter");
});

My HTML is something like this:

<tr><td> Personal Name </td></tr>
<tr><td> <input type='text' class='large'> </td></tr>

<tr><td> Email</td></tr>
<tr><td> <input type='text' class='large'> </td></tr>

When I’ve given the fields IDs and tried $('#elementid').keypress it worked. But this isn’t working. I get no console output. What am I missing?

Answer 1

You can use live (.on()) events in document with keydown (I think this is better). It’ll allow you detect keydown in current and future elements that matches with a selector.

HTML:

<strong>Personal Name</strong>
<input type='text' class='large' /><br />

<strong>Email</strong>
<input type='text' class='large' />
​

JS (jQuery 1.7+):

Note: .which, .code, .charCode and .keyCode is now deprecated. Use the following new solution:

jQuery(document).on('keydown', 'input.large', function(ev) {
    if(ev.key === 'Enter') {
        // Will change backgroundColor to blue as example
        this.style.backgroundColor = '#EFF';

        // Avoid form submit
        return false;
    }
});

jsFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/david_proweb/fjgvhubn/2/