KeyboardEvent key Property
Example
Get the keyboard button that was pressed when a key event occured:
var x = event.key;
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More "Try it Yourself" examples below.
Definition and Usage
The key property returns the identifier of the key that was pressed when a key event occured.
Key identifiers are strings that identify keyboard buttons. The return value of this property can be a string of:
- A single character (like "a", "W", "4", "+" or "$")
- A multicharacter (like "F1", "Enter", "HOME" or "CAPS LOCK")
Note: This property is read-only.
Tip: If you want to find out whether the "ALT", "CTRL", "META" or "SHIFT" key was pressed when a key event occured, use the altKey, ctrlKey, metaKey or shiftKey property.
Browser Support
The numbers in the table specify the first browser version that fully supports the property.
| Property | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| key | 51.0 | 9.0 | 23.0 | 10.0 | 38.0 |
Syntax
event.key
Technical Details
| Return Value: |
A String, representing the pressed keyboard button. Possible values:
|
|---|---|
| DOM Version: | DOM Level 3 Events |
More Examples
Example
Alert some text if the user presses the "A" key:
var x = event.key;
// If the pressed keyboard button is "a" or "A" (using caps lock or shift), alert some text.
if (x == "a" || x == "A") {
alert ("You pressed the 'A' key!");
}
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