I have a form
with two text boxes, one select drop down and one radio button. When the enter key is pressed, I want to call my JavaScript function, but when I press it, the form
is submitted.
How do I prevent the form
from being submitted when the enter key is pressed?
if(characterCode == 13)
{
return false; // returning false will prevent the event from bubbling up.
}
else
{
return true;
}
Ok, so imagine you have the following textbox in a form:
<input id="scriptBox" type="text" onkeypress="return runScript(event)" />
In order to run some "user defined" script from this text box when the enter key is pressed, and not have it submit the form, here is some sample code. Please note that this function doesn't do any error checking and most likely will only work in IE. To do this right you need a more robust solution, but you will get the general idea.
function runScript(e) {
//See notes about 'which' and 'key'
if (e.keyCode == 13) {
var tb = document.getElementById("scriptBox");
eval(tb.value);
return false;
}
}
returning the value of the function will alert the event handler not to bubble the event any further, and will prevent the keypress event from being handled further.
It's been pointed out that keyCode
is now deprecated. The next best alternative which
has also been deprecated.
Unfortunately the favored standard key
, which is widely supported by modern browsers, has some dodgy behavior in IE and Edge. Anything older than IE11 would still need a polyfill.
Furthermore, while the deprecated warning is quite ominous about keyCode
and which
, removing those would represent a massive breaking change to untold numbers of legacy websites. For that reason, it is unlikely they are going anywhere anytime soon.