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Deprecated
This feature has been removed from the Web standards. Though some browsers may still support it, it is in the process of being dropped. Do not use it in old or new projects. Pages or Web apps using it may break at any time.

The KeyboardEvent.which read-only property returns the numeric keyCode of the key pressed, or the character code (charCode) for an alphanumeric key pressed.

Syntax

var keyResult = event.which;
  • keyResult contains the numeric code for a particular key pressed, depending on whether an alphanumeric or non-alphanumeric key was pressed. Please see KeyboardEvent.charCode and KeyboardEvent.keyCode for more details.

Example

<html>
<head>
<title>charCode/keyCode/which example</title>

<script type="text/javascript">

function showKeyPress(evt)
{
alert("onkeypress handler: \n"
      + "keyCode property: " + evt.keyCode + "\n"
      + "which property: " + evt.which + "\n"
      + "charCode property: " + evt.charCode + "\n"
      + "Character Key Pressed: "
      + String.fromCharCode(evt.charCode) + "\n"
     );
}


function keyDown(evt)
{
alert("onkeydown handler: \n"
      + "keyCode property: " + evt.keyCode + "\n"
      + "which property: " + evt.which + "\n"
     );
}


</script>
</head>

<body
 onkeypress="showKeyPress(event);"
 onkeydown="keyDown(event);"
>

<p>Please press any key.</p>

</body>
</html>

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Events Specification
The definition of 'KeyboardEvent.which' in that specification.		 Working Draft Initial definition; specified as deprecated

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support 4 2 [1] 9 10.10 5.1
Feature Android Chrome for Android Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)[1] 10 ? 5.1

[1] Gecko implements this property on the UIEvent interface.

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

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 Contributors to this page: jwhitlock, fscholz, cvrebert, teoli, SphinxKnight, kscarfone, Kartik_Chadha, Sheppy, Huan, Matej Lednar, Nickolay, Jabez
 Last updated by: jwhitlock,