Hi

I have 2 small functions which are working fine in Safari and Firefox but not Internet Explorer. The functions count the characters in a text box and update a label which shows the total on each key press, including deletions.

I know that Char 8 is backspace but Internet Explorer doesn't seem to recognise it, so when you start deleting text in the box the label doesn't update until you press another key. I've tried show the key variable via alert to see what it is when backspace is pressed, but the alert window doesn't show.

Is there a way that I can get these functions to recognise the delete key in IE please? Here are the functions, and below these is the html code I'm using to call it.

function getKeyCode(e) {
	if (window.event) { return window.event.keyCode; }
	else if (e) { return e.which; }
	else { return null; }
}

function verbatimMax(e, qVerb, max) {
	if (max == 0 || max == '') { return true; }
	var key, verbLength;
	key = getKeyCode(e);
	if (key == 8) {
		verbLength = document.getElementById(qVerb).value.length - 1;
		if (verbLength < 0) { verbLength = 0; }
		document.getElementById('verbCharCount').innerHTML = 'Length: ' + verbLength + '/' + max;
		return true;
	}
	if (key == null || key == 0 || key == 9 || key == 27) {
		return true;
	}
	verbLength = document.getElementById(qVerb).value.length + 1;
	if (verbLength > max) { return false; }
	document.getElementById('verbCharCount').innerHTML = 'Length: ' + verbLength + '/' + max;
	return true;
}

This is the onkeypress bit I have on the textarea tag:

onkeypress="return verbatimMax(event, 'Q16_VERBATIM', 400)"

Thanks

I found one site via google which says that some browsers don't recognise certain keys like backspace.

I found a message board though where someone wanted to disable the backspace key so that when pressed it didn't take you back to your previous page/site, so will give that a try later today:

http://www.irt.org/script/1345.htm

I also found this page which recognises backspace in Internet Explorer with a working example/script. However it's only recognised on keyup and keydown, not keypress. I guess I have to go with that:

http://www.w3.org/2002/09/tests/keys.html

Originally Posted by the12thplaya

I found one site via google which says that some browsers don't recognise certain keys like backspace.

I found a message board though where someone wanted to disable the backspace key so that when pressed it didn't take you back to your previous page/site, so will give that a try later today:

http://www.irt.org/script/1345.htm

I also found this page which recognises backspace in Internet Explorer with a working example/script. However it's only recognised on keyup and keydown, not keypress. I guess I have to go with that:

http://www.w3.org/2002/09/tests/keys.html

I suggest not trying to read key values at all:

<FORM>
 <INPUT type='text' size='40' name='user' onkeyup="showCharCount(this,'lDisplay')">&nbsp;<label id='lDisplay'>&nbsp;<!--must not be empty--></LABEL>
</FORM>
<SCRIPT type='text/javascript'>
function showCharCount(field, label)
{
 document.getElementById(label).firstChild.data=field.value.length;
}
</SCRIPT>

As simple as that? Thanks, I'll give it a bash when I get home later.

I got it working this morning by calling the same function with onkeypress and onkeydown, but if less code works I'll give it a try.

OnKeyPress is filtered, so you won't get "special" keys. The KeyUp and KeyDown events give you more data.