Question

QUESTION: how to get at the star above the numbers

My FIDDLE currently does not detect the * above the number row on the keyboard – only the * on the numeric keypad…

On my keyboard it is shift-3 so keyCode 51 + shift. How do I just test for * regardless of what I clicked to get it?

Answer 1

The keydown and keyup events are unreliable for detecting specific characters, because the event.which property of these events are not char codes.

The keypress event has to be used. This event may fire multiple times whilst a key is pressed down. So, set a flag when the desired key is pressed, and remove the flag on keyup.

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/xHnTD/

function something_to_do() {
    // This function is fired when * is pressed.
    $('<div>Pressed *!</div>').appendTo('body')
}
$('body').keypress(function(e) {
    var $this = $(this);
    if (e.which === 42) { // '*'.charCodeAt(0) === 42
        if (!$this.data('rw_star_pressed')) {
            $this.data('rw_star_pressed', true);
            something_to_do();
        }
    }
}).keyup(function() {
    $(this).removeData('rw_star_pressed');
});