I have used the below code, and whenever click the arrow key (left, right, up, down) I get the key value is "0". Can anyone can help on this?

 $(document).keypress(function (e) {

 alert("key value: " + e.which); 

  });

How to get (Up, Down, Right, Left) arrow key value when keypress.

I have used the below code, and whenever click the arrow key (left, right, up, down) I get the key value is "0". Can anyone can help on this?

 $(document).keypress(function (e) {

 alert("key value: " + e.which); 

  });

How to get (Up, Down, Right, Left) arrow key value when keypress.

• javascript
• jquery
• jquery-events

• possible duplicate of jQuery Keypress Arrow Keys – James Donnelly Commented Nov 21, 2013 at 12:51

2 Answers 2

Use keydown insted of keypress

 $(document).keydown(function(event){    
    var key = event.which;                
            switch(key) {
              case 37:
                  // Key left.
                  break;
              case 38:
                  // Key up.
                  break;
              case 39:
                  // Key right.
                  break;
              case 40:
                  // Key down.
                  break;
        }   
  });

In many browsers the keypress event doesn't recognise the arrow keys (nor keys like "shift", "del", "esc", etc. If you want to capture those key presses, you'll need to use keydown or keyup instead:

$(document).keydown(function (e) {

    alert("key value: " + e.which); 

});

JSFiddle demo.

As for the right, left, up and down arrow keys, those are:

left     37
up       38
right    39
down     40