Question

I’m trying to streamline this script. I have 50 of these if e.keyCode statements, so double nesting if/else statements seems ridiculous, but all other attempts I’ve made haven’t worked.

The first if/else statement if(e.keyCode == 66 && e.shiftKey) is necessary, but I’m not sure about the second if (typedAdjusted >= paperWidth % charWidth) which is throwing a warning if too many characters are typed on a line relative to a fixed width.

Can the functionality if (typedAdjusted >= paperWidth % charWidth) gives me be global? It will need to be checked against specific keyCodes. For instance, the letter “B” should be figured into typedAdjusted while BACKSPACE and TAB and COMMAND should not.

var typed = $("span.char").length;
var typedAdjusted = typed+1;
var paperWidth = 900;
var charWidth = 44;

if (e.keyCode  == 66)  {
    if (e.keyCode  == 66  && e.shiftKey)  {
        $('#charLine-1').append('<span class="char">B</span>');
        if (typedAdjusted  >= paperWidth % charWidth) {
            $('body').append('<span id="warning">WARNING!</span>');
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    } 
    else  {
        $('#charLine-1').append('<span class="char">b</span>');
        if (typedAdjusted  >= paperWidth % charWidth) {
            $('body').append('<span id="warning">WARNING!</span>');
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }        
    }
}

Answer 1

IF you like checking each one use a switch: call the checkKey function as needed passing the event.

function checklen() {
    var typed = $("span.char").length;
    var typedAdjusted = typed + 1;
    var paperWidth = 900;
    var charWidth = 44;
    return (typedAdjusted >= paperWidth % charWidth);
}

function checkKey(e) {
    var mychar = '';
    var checkit = false;
    switch (e.keyCode) {
    case 66:
        mychar = e.shiftKey ? 'B' : 'b';
        checkit = checklen();
        break;
    case 67:
        mychar = e.shiftKey ? 'C' : 'c';
        checkit = checklen();
        break;
    case 68:
        mychar = e.shiftKey ? 'D' : 'd';
        checkit = checklen();
        break;

    default:
        checkit = false;
        break;
    }
    if (!checkit) {
        $('#charLine-1').append('<span class="char">' + mychar + '</span>');
    }
    else {
        $('body').append('<span id="warning">WARNING!</span>');
    }
}

to get it to work on the entire document:

$(document).ready(function(){
  $(document).keydown(function(e) { 
     checkKey(e);
  });
});

then just click on the page and type characters – note only ‘b’,’c’,’d’ on the code above.