jQuery Capture Single Key Press Event (Keyboard Shortcuts)

Sometimes to improve our website performance and usability we may want to add some keyboard shortcuts which can used to perform common site tasks faster than a speeding bullet! In this article I will explain in easy to understand n00b language how to create keyboard events using jQuery.

• Find the Keycode of Keyboard Key Pressed

This is how you do it.

// this is a generic setup to capture keyup events in jquery will console log for firebug

if(typeof console == 'undefined'){
	console = {};
	console.log = function(arg){return false;};
}

$(document).keyup(function(e){
	//find out which key was pressed
	switch(e.keyCode){
		case 65	:	console.log('a');	break;	// a
		case 66	:	console.log('b');	break;	// b
		case 67	:	console.log('c');	break;	// c
		case 68	:	console.log('d');	break;	// d
		case 69	:	console.log('e');	break;	// e
		case 70	:	console.log('f');	break;	// f
		case 71	:	console.log('g');	break;	// g
		case 72	:	console.log('h');	break;	// h
		case 73	:	console.log('i');	break;	// i
		case 74	:	console.log('j');	break;	// j
		case 75	:	console.log('k');	break;	// k
		case 76	:	console.log('l');	break;	// l
		case 77	:	console.log('m');	break;	// m
		case 78	:	console.log('n');	break;	// n
		case 79	:	console.log('o');	break;	// o
		case 80	:	console.log('p');	break;	// p
		case 81	:	console.log('q');	break;	// q
		case 82	:	console.log('r'); 	break;	// r
		case 83	:	console.log('s');	break;	// s
		case 84	:	console.log('t');	break;	// t
		case 85	:	console.log('u');	break;	// u
		case 86	:	console.log('v');	break;	// v
		case 87	:	console.log('w');	break;	// w
		case 88	:	console.log('x');	break;	// x
		case 89	:	console.log('y');	break;	// y
		case 90	:	console.log('z');	break;	// z
	}
});