What is the key difference between event.key and event.code?

`event.key` reflects the textual character produced by the keypress (locale-sensitive, reflecting Shift/Caps state), whereas `event.code` identifies the physical key location on the keyboard hardware.

Why is event.keyCode deprecated in web standards?

The W3C deprecated `event.keyCode` and `event.which` because different browsers and operating systems historically returned conflicting numeric codes, especially across non-US keyboard layouts.

Why does pressing Enter fire twice in Korean or Japanese inputs?

When composing characters via an IME (Input Method Editor), the first Enter confirms the active character composition, and the second submits the form. You can prevent this with `if (e.isComposing) return;`.

What is the difference between CR (Carriage Return) and LF (Line Feed)?

CR (ASCII 13, `\r`) moves the cursor to the beginning of the line, while LF (ASCII 10, `\n`) advances down to the next line. Windows uses CRLF (`\r\n`) while Unix/Linux/macOS use LF (`\n`).

Is my keystroke data captured or transmitted to any server?

No. Keypress detection runs strictly within your browser's local DOM event listener. No keystrokes or system telemetry are ever logged or transmitted.

ASCII Table & Interactive KeyCode Reference

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Comprehensive 0-127 ASCII lookup table paired with a live JavaScript KeyboardEvent inspector and code generator.

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Interactive Client Mode

Live Keyboard Event Inspector (Press Any Key)

event.key (표준 권장)Enter

event.code (물리 키)Enter

keyCode / which (Deprecated)13

Modifiers

CtrlShiftAltMeta

Full ASCII Table Reference (0 to 127)

Control characters (0-31), alphabet, digits, and punctuation

Dec	Hex	Binary	Char	Description
0	0x00	00000000	CTRL-@	NUL (Null char)
1	0x01	00000001	CTRL-A	SOH (Start of Header)
2	0x02	00000010	CTRL-B	STX (Start of Text)
3	0x03	00000011	CTRL-C	ETX (End of Text)
4	0x04	00000100	CTRL-D	EOT (End of Trans)
5	0x05	00000101	CTRL-E	ENQ (Enquiry)
6	0x06	00000110	CTRL-F	ACK (Acknowledge)
7	0x07	00000111	CTRL-G	BEL (Bell)
8	0x08	00001000	CTRL-H	BS (Backspace)
9	0x09	00001001	CTRL-I	HT (Horizontal Tab)
10	0x0A	00001010	CTRL-J	LF (Line Feed)
11	0x0B	00001011	CTRL-K	VT (Vertical Tab)
12	0x0C	00001100	CTRL-L	FF (Form Feed)
13	0x0D	00001101	CTRL-M	CR (Carriage Return)
14	0x0E	00001110	CTRL-N	SO (Shift Out)
15	0x0F	00001111	CTRL-O	SI (Shift In)
16	0x10	00010000	CTRL-P	DLE (Data Link Escape)
17	0x11	00010001	CTRL-Q	DC1 (Device Control 1)
18	0x12	00010010	CTRL-R	DC2 (Device Control 2)
19	0x13	00010011	CTRL-S	DC3 (Device Control 3)
20	0x14	00010100	CTRL-T	DC4 (Device Control 4)
21	0x15	00010101	CTRL-U	NAK (Negative Ack)
22	0x16	00010110	CTRL-V	SYN (Synchronous Idle)
23	0x17	00010111	CTRL-W	ETB (End of Block)
24	0x18	00011000	CTRL-X	CAN (Cancel)
25	0x19	00011001	CTRL-Y	EM (End of Medium)
26	0x1A	00011010	CTRL-Z	SUB (Substitute)
27	0x1B	00011011	CTRL-[	ESC (Escape)
28	0x1C	00011100	CTRL-\	FS (File Separator)
29	0x1D	00011101	CTRL-]	GS (Group Separator)
30	0x1E	00011110	CTRL-^	RS (Record Separator)
31	0x1F	00011111	CTRL-_	US (Unit Separator)
32	0x20	00100000	Space	Space (공백)
33	0x21	00100001	!	-
34	0x22	00100010	"	-
35	0x23	00100011	#	-
36	0x24	00100100	$	-
37	0x25	00100101	%	-
38	0x26	00100110	&	-
39	0x27	00100111	'	-
40	0x28	00101000	(	-
41	0x29	00101001	)	-
42	0x2A	00101010	*	-
43	0x2B	00101011	+	-
44	0x2C	00101100	,	-
45	0x2D	00101101	-	-
46	0x2E	00101110	.	-
47	0x2F	00101111	/	-
48	0x30	00110000	0	-
49	0x31	00110001	1	-
50	0x32	00110010	2	-
51	0x33	00110011	3	-
52	0x34	00110100	4	-
53	0x35	00110101	5	-
54	0x36	00110110	6	-
55	0x37	00110111	7	-
56	0x38	00111000	8	-
57	0x39	00111001	9	-
58	0x3A	00111010	:	-
59	0x3B	00111011	;	-
60	0x3C	00111100	<	-
61	0x3D	00111101	=	-
62	0x3E	00111110	>	-
63	0x3F	00111111	?	-
64	0x40	01000000	@	-
65	0x41	01000001	A	-
66	0x42	01000010	B	-
67	0x43	01000011	C	-
68	0x44	01000100	D	-
69	0x45	01000101	E	-
70	0x46	01000110	F	-
71	0x47	01000111	G	-
72	0x48	01001000	H	-
73	0x49	01001001	I	-
74	0x4A	01001010	J	-
75	0x4B	01001011	K	-
76	0x4C	01001100	L	-
77	0x4D	01001101	M	-
78	0x4E	01001110	N	-
79	0x4F	01001111	O	-
80	0x50	01010000	P	-
81	0x51	01010001	Q	-
82	0x52	01010010	R	-
83	0x53	01010011	S	-
84	0x54	01010100	T	-
85	0x55	01010101	U	-
86	0x56	01010110	V	-
87	0x57	01010111	W	-
88	0x58	01011000	X	-
89	0x59	01011001	Y	-
90	0x5A	01011010	Z	-
91	0x5B	01011011	[	-
92	0x5C	01011100	\	-
93	0x5D	01011101	]	-
94	0x5E	01011110	^	-
95	0x5F	01011111	_	-
96	0x60	01100000	`	-
97	0x61	01100001	a	-
98	0x62	01100010	b	-
99	0x63	01100011	c	-
100	0x64	01100100	d	-
101	0x65	01100101	e	-
102	0x66	01100110	f	-
103	0x67	01100111	g	-
104	0x68	01101000	h	-
105	0x69	01101001	i	-
106	0x6A	01101010	j	-
107	0x6B	01101011	k	-
108	0x6C	01101100	l	-
109	0x6D	01101101	m	-
110	0x6E	01101110	n	-
111	0x6F	01101111	o	-
112	0x70	01110000	p	-
113	0x71	01110001	q	-
114	0x72	01110010	r	-
115	0x73	01110011	s	-
116	0x74	01110100	t	-
117	0x75	01110101	u	-
118	0x76	01110110	v	-
119	0x77	01110111	w	-
120	0x78	01111000	x	-
121	0x79	01111001	y	-
122	0x7A	01111010	z	-
123	0x7B	01111011	{	-
124	0x7C	01111100	\|	-
125	0x7D	01111101	}	-
126	0x7E	01111110	~	-
127	0x7F	01111111	DEL	DEL (Delete)

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Interactive ASCII Table & Modern JavaScript Keyboard Event Reference

The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) represents the foundational 7-bit character encoding architecture powering modern digital computing. Encompassing 128 integer code points from 0 to 127, it governs 33 non-printable control characters (such as NUL, LF, CR, TAB, and ESC), 94 printable symbols (Latin alphabet uppercase/lowercase, numerical digits, punctuation marks), and the DEL character.

Concurrently, modern web frontend engineering (React, Vue, TypeScript) relies heavily on keyboard interaction—from global shortcut registries to modal dialog dismissal and canvas game navigation. Transitioning away from legacy, deprecated `event.keyCode` APIs to modern W3C specifications (`event.key` and `event.code`) is critical to ensuring robust internationalization and cross-browser consistency.

OrvoKit ASCII & KeyCode Reference pairs a searchable 0-127 ASCII catalog (complete with Decimal, Hex, Octal, Binary, and HTML entity representations) with a real-time Keypress Inspector that captures live browser `event.key`, `event.code`, `event.which`, and active modifier states (Alt, Ctrl, Shift, Meta) instantly.

7-Bit Binary Mapping & W3C KeyboardEvent Architecture

The binary structure of the ASCII character set alongside the semantic distinction between physical key locations (code) and generated text values (key).

Modern KeyboardEvent: event.key vs event.codeMathematical Formulation

Event.key = 'The printed character value (locale-aware)' | Event.code = 'The physical keyboard key location (hardware layout)'

Because `event.keyCode` is deprecated, use `event.key` when interested in the actual text produced by the user, and use `event.code` for shortcuts or gaming inputs where physical key location matters independently of keyboard layout.

Comparing Keypress Behaviors on the 'A' Key

Pressing lowercase 'a'key: 'a', code: 'KeyA', keyCode: 65Text matches key location

Pressing Shift + 'a'key: 'A', code: 'KeyA', shiftKey: trueCapital character emitted

Non-Latin Keyboard Layoutkey: 'ф' (Cyrillic), code: 'KeyA'Physical code remains constant

Pressing Enter Keykey: 'Enter', code: 'Enter', ASCII: 13 (CR) / 10 (LF)Standard control mapping

👉 Enables robust keyboard interaction across all international locales and hardware setups.

Essential ASCII Control Characters & Core KeyCode Reference

Quick-reference table of standard control codes, whitespaces, and key points in the ASCII spectrum

Decimal	Hex	Character	Description & Control Role	JS event.key	Common Use Case
0	0x00	NUL	Null Character	'\0'	String terminator in C/C++
9	0x09	HT / TAB	Horizontal Tab	'Tab'	Indentation, form navigation
10	0x0A	LF	Line Feed	'\n'	Unix/Linux newline delimiter
13	0x0D	CR	Carriage Return	'Enter'	Windows newline (\r\n), Enter key
27	0x1B	ESC	Escape	'Escape'	Closing dialogs, cancel actions
32	0x20	Space	Space Character	' '	Standard word delimiter
65	0x41	A	Latin Capital Letter A	'A'	Start of uppercase alphabet (0x41-0x5A)
97	0x61	a	Latin Small Letter a	'a'	Start of lowercase alphabet (0x61-0x7A)

* Uppercase and lowercase ASCII letters differ only by the 6th bit (0x20 = 32), facilitating trivial bitwise case conversion.

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How to Use

11. Press Any Key to Test

Press any keyboard key (e.g. Enter, Esc, Space, arrows, or F1-F12) to inspect its live KeyboardEvent payload in the top card.

22. Copy JavaScript Boilerplate

Click [Copy Code] to copy production-ready `if (e.key === 'Enter')` or `if (e.code === 'KeyW')` code snippets directly.

33. Search ASCII Table

Search the comprehensive ASCII table by character, decimal value, hex identifier (0x41), or control description (CR, LF, TAB).

44. Retrieve HTML Entities

Copy safe HTML character references such as `&` or `<` for embedding special characters in web templates.

Frontend Engineering Implementation Scenarios

Real-world keyboard handling patterns in web applications

Search Inputs & Escape Modal Dismissal

Cleanly detect if (e.key === 'Enter') submit() or if (e.key === 'Escape') closeModal().

Canvas Game WASD Navigation

Bind character movement to e.code === 'KeyW' to ensure consistent layout across international keyboards.

CSV / TSV Parser Implementations

Detect ASCII 9 (Tab) and ASCII 10/13 (LF/CR) when streaming tabular text payloads.

Cross-Platform Line Ending Normalization

Convert Windows CRLF (\r\n) and legacy Mac CR (\r) to standardized Unix LF (\n).

💡 Keyboard Event Handling Best Practices

✓ Avoid Deprecated keyCode & which

Adopt `event.key` and `event.code` across your codebases to eliminate inconsistencies between browsers and platforms.

✓ Handle IME Composition on Enter

For CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) input, guard against duplicate enter events with `if (e.isComposing) return;`.

✓ Distinguish Space Key Values

Remember that `e.code` is the string 'Space', while `e.key` is a single literal whitespace character (' ').

⚠️ Common Pitfalls & Mistakes to Avoid

❌ Relying on e.key for Game Controls

✅ On French (AZERTY) or German (QWERTZ) keyboards, e.key produces different letters. Use e.code to bind to the physical key position.

❌ Hardcoding Numeric KeyCodes in Modern React

✅ Writing `if (e.keyCode === 13)` is deprecated. Modern lint rules enforce `if (e.key === 'Enter')` for readability and standards compliance.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Expert answers to the most frequently asked questions and edge cases.

6 Q&As

ASCII is a 7-bit character encoding system containing exactly 128 characters (0 through 127), spanning 33 non-printable control characters, 94 printable symbols, and the space character.

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