jQuery's 'keypress' doesn't work for some keys in Chrome. How to work around?

I'm trying to implement key-press functionality which will remove a div when the user hits Esc. This works for Firefox & IE with the following code:

$("body").keypress(function(e) {
    alert("any key pressed");
    if (e.keyCode == 27) {
        alert("escape pressed");
    }
});

If I hit any key, the first alert is displayed, and if I hit Escape, the second alert is also displayed.

This doesn't work with Chrome though. The first alert is always displayed if I hit any of the letter keys, but not when I hit Escape, Tab, Space or any of the numbers.

Why would this be? Is there any way to get Chrome to respond to these key presses?

Try handling keydown instead.

use keydown. keypress doesn't work with ESC in Chrome (not sure about other browsers).

$(newTag).keydown(function(e) {  //keypress did not work with ESC;
	if (event.which == '13') {
	  ProfilePage.saveNewTag(search_id, $(newTag).val());
	}
	else if (window.event.which){
 	  $(newTag).remove();
	}
});	

For ESC key:

$(document).keydown(function(e) {
  if(e.keyCode == 27) { /* Run code */ }
}

For letter keys, like 'L':

$(document).keypress(function(e) {
  if(e.which == 108) { }
});

Works in both Chrome and Firefox

After the second alert add also

e.preventDefault();

This will prevent the default action of the event to be triggered.

More info about this method here

Your code should look like

$("body").keypress(function(e) {
    alert("any key pressed");
    if (e.keyCode == 27) {
         alert("escape pressed");
         e.preventDefault();
}});

keypress 'ESC'

e.which: 0
e.keyCode: 27

keyup 'ESC'

e.which: 27
e.keyCode: 27

---

For non-printable characters better use keyup.

Using Jquery.hotkey js file you can Make Sortcut key

$(document).bind('keydown', 'esc', function(){ });