# keyboard-key
> A simple utility for determining the KeyboardEvent.key property from a keyboard event.
Latest version **1.1.0** (published 2020-01-16) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads
## Install
```sh
npm install keyboard-key
pnpm add keyboard-key
yarn add keyboard-key
bun add keyboard-key
```
## Health
**Score 25/100 (F)** — status: abandoned.
Positive: has types; no vulnerabilities; high quality score.
Warnings: low downloads; no esm support.
Negative: abandoned; low maintenance score.
## Facts
| | |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.1.0 |
| Published | 2020-01-16 |
| First published | 2017-09-05 |
| Weekly downloads | 0 |
| License | MIT |
| TypeScript types | bundled |
| Module format | CommonJS |
| Dependencies | 0 |
| Unpacked size | 22.6 KB |
| Known vulnerabilities | 0 |
| Install scripts | no |
| GitHub stars | 14 |
| Author | Levi Thomason |
| Maintainers | levithomason |
## Links
- npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/keyboard-key
- Repository: https://github.com/levithomason/keyboard-key
- Homepage: https://github.com/levithomason/keyboard-key#readme
- Issues: https://github.com/levithomason/keyboard-key/issues
- npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/keyboard-key
## Recent versions
- 1.1.0 (latest) — 2020-01-16
- 1.0.4 — 2019-01-18
- 1.0.2 — 2018-08-04
- 1.0.1 — 2017-09-18
- 1.0.0 — 2017-09-05
## README
keyboard-key
[](https://circleci.com/gh/levithomason/keyboard-key/master)
[](https://codecov.io/gh/levithomason/keyboard-key)
[](https://david-dm.org/levithomason/keyboard-key)
[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/keyboard-key)
============
A simple utility for determining the `KeyboardEvent.key` property from a keyboard event.
- [Install](#install)
- [Usage](#usage)
* [getKey()](#getkey)
* [getCode()](#getcode)
- [Why?](#why)
- [Locale Caveat](#locale-caveat)
## Install
```
yarn add keyboard-key
# or
npm install keyboard-key
```
## Usage
### getKey()
Get the `key` property value from an event.
```js
document.addEventListener('keydown', event => {
const key = keyboardKey.getKey(event)
switch (key) {
case 'Escape':
// handle escape key
break
default:
break
}
})
```
>See [MDN][2] or the source for a full list of `key` values.
### getCode()
You can also get the normalized `keyCode` from an event. `keyboard-key` includes a hash of `key` names to `keyCode`s for easy comparisons:
```js
document.addEventListener('keydown', event => {
const code = keyboardKey.getCode(event)
switch (code) {
case keyboardKey.Escape: // 27
// handle escape key
break
default:
break
}
})
```
## Why?
Most previous key identifying KeyboardEvent properties have been pressed have been deprecated in favor of `Keyboard.key`.
:-1: `KeyboardEvent.char`
:-1: `KeyboardEvent.charCode`
:-1: `KeyboardEvent.keyCode`
:-1: `KeyboardEvent.keyIdentifier`
:-1: `KeyboardEvent.keyLocation`
:-1: `KeyboardEvent.which`
:+1: `KeyboardEvent.key`
Unfortunately, `KeyboardEvent.key` does not yet have full [browser support][3]. Leaving the browsers without a reliable property for identifying keyboard event keys.
## Locale Caveat
This utility interprets use of the shift key when inferring event `key` values. Example, an event describing shift+/ would result in a `key` value of ?. This logic assumes an `en-US` locale keyboard layout. This will **not work** if you are using a different locale such as a German layout where / is shift+7.
[1]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/KeyboardEvent/key
[2]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/KeyboardEvent/key/Key_Values
[3]: http://caniuse.com/#feat=keyboardevent-key
---
_Source: https://npm.io/package/keyboard-key · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._