I try to convert keystrokes into chracters. In other question someone remand to use the onkeydown function because onkeypress gets handeled differently by different characters.

I don't know how to handle special chracters like ´ ` ' ( ) that might be different in different keyboards around the world.

I try to convert keystrokes into chracters. In other question someone remand to use the onkeydown function because onkeypress gets handeled differently by different characters.

I don't know how to handle special chracters like ´ ` ' ( ) that might be different in different keyboards around the world.

• javascript

2 Answers 2

For keys that have printable character equivalents, you should use the keypress event because you can retrieve character codes from the keypress event, which is generally not possible for keyup and keydown events.

The event properties you need are which and keyCode - pretty much all browsers have one or both of these, though IE muddies the waters by using keyCode for the character code while some other browsers return a (different) key code. Most non-IE browsers also have charCode but it seems all such browsers also have which, so charCode is never needed. A simple example:

document.onkeypress = function(evt) {
  evt = evt || window.event;
  var charCode = evt.which || evt.keyCode;
  var charStr = String.fromCharCode(charCode);
  alert(charStr);
};

Here is a useful reference page.

 document.onkeydown = checkKey;
function checkKey(e) {

e = e || window.event;
document.getElementById("label").style.display = "none";
if (e.keyCode == '65') {
    //a
    var lx = document.getElementById('location');
    typeIt("a");
}
else if (e.keyCode == '66') {
    //b
      var lx = document.getElementById('location');
    typeIt("b");
}
else if (e.keyCode == '67') {
   //c
      var lx = document.getElementById('location');
    typeIt("c");
}
}

This should successfully convert the key code you press into a string letter, which you can use in a bigger function. It takes more time, but I found it is highly patible with most browsers and keyboards (whatever the language may be.) I used this code in a text editor project which would be distributed to friends in several countries, so I am certain it will work. Note: the function above only includes the letters "A", "B", and "C".