Question

Please suggest the best way to create key events for HTML5 canvas. I don’t prefer any library, but if you think that it’s the best way then go answer it. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

This will return the key code:

<canvas id="myCanvas" width="200" height="100" style="background:green"></canvas>
<script type="text/javascript">
window.addEventListener('keydown',this.check,false);

function check(e) {
    alert(e.keyCode);
}
</script>

If you would like a demonstration of different things being done based on key:

function check(e) {
    var code = e.keyCode;
    //Up arrow pressed
    if (code == 38)
        alert("You pressed the Up arrow key");
    else
        alert("You pressed some other key I don't really care about.");
}

Or if you have a long list of keys you’ll be using, do it in a switch case:

function check(e) {
    var code = e.keyCode;
    switch (code) {
        case 37: alert("Left"); break; //Left key
        case 38: alert("Up"); break; //Up key
        case 39: alert("Right"); break; //Right key
        case 40: alert("Down"); break; //Down key
        default: alert(code); //Everything else
    }
}