keypress event not working in IE and Chrome but working in FF

Question

Any idea why this might happen? I would usually think that Chrome would be more forgiving with the codes?

$(document).keypress(function(e) {
    if(e.keyCode == 39) rightImage();
    if(e.keyCode == 37) leftImage();
});

Thats what my keypress key looks like. Am I missing something? rightImage(); and leftImage(); are functions which should be working becase I'm using those functions somewhere else too

Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

Change keypress to keydown:

$(document).keydown(function(e) {
    if(e.keyCode == 39) rightImage();
    if(e.keyCode == 37) leftImage();
});

The keydown event occurs when the key is pressed, followed immediately by the keypress event. Then the keyup event is generated when the key is released.

In order to understand the difference between keydown and keypress, it is useful to understand the difference between a "character" and a "key". A "key" is a physical button on the computer's keyboard while a "character" is a symbol typed by pressing a button. In theory, the keydown and keyup events represent keys being pressed or released, while the keypress event represents a character being typed. The implementation of the theory is not same in all browsers.

Answer 2

Found the answer here: http://api.jquery.com/keypress/

"If you want to use arrows, delete, backspace keys in Chrome you must use keydown. keypress on these keys work only in Firefox and Opera."

Your code didn't work for me in iE8 (worked in FF), so I switched keypress to keydown. Works in IE now. Don't have Chrome here to test.