Written by Lara Kannan in ,


How to catch TAB key press with JavaScript?

The example code is tested in IE, Firefox and Opare. Probably also works in Netscape as well as others like Safari.


<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
var obj;
var TAB = 9;
function catchTAB(evt,elem)
{
  obj = elem;
  var keyCode;
  if ("which" in evt)
  {// NN4 & FF &amp; Opera
    keyCode=evt.which;
  } else if ("keyCode" in evt)
  {// Safari & IE4+
    keyCode=evt.keyCode;
  } else if ("keyCode" in window.event)
  {// IE4+
    keyCode=window.event.keyCode;
  } else if ("which" in window.event)
  {
    keyCode=evt.which;
  } else  {    alert("the browser don't support");  }

  if (keyCode == TAB)
  {
    obj.value = obj.value + "\t";
    alert("TAB was pressed");
    setTimeout("obj.focus()",1);// the focus is set back to the text input
  }
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<input type="text" onkeydown="catchTAB(event,this);">
</body>
</html>

Hope this will help you. Happy coding!

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