Trigger a button click with JavaScript on the Enter key in a text box

Question

I have one text input and one button (see below). How can I use JavaScript to trigger the button\'s click event when the Enter key is pressed ins

Answer 1

Since no one has used addEventListener yet, here is my version. Given the elements:

<input type = "text" id = "txt" />
<input type = "button" id = "go" />

I would use the following:

var go = document.getElementById("go");
var txt = document.getElementById("txt");

txt.addEventListener("keypress", function(event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    if (event.keyCode == 13)
        go.click();
});

This allows you to change the event type and action separately while keeping the HTML clean.

Note that it's probably worthwhile to make sure this is outside of a <form> because when I enclosed these elements in them pressing Enter submitted the form and reloaded the page. Took me a few blinks to discover.

Addendum: Thanks to a comment by @ruffin, I've added the missing event handler and a preventDefault to allow this code to (presumably) work inside a form as well. (I will get around to testing this, at which point I will remove the bracketed content.)

Answer 2

Then just code it in!

<input type = "text"
       id = "txtSearch" 
       onkeydown = "if (event.keyCode == 13)
                        document.getElementById('btnSearch').click()"    
/>

<input type = "button"
       id = "btnSearch"
       value = "Search"
       onclick = "doSomething();"
/>

Answer 3

To do it with jQuery:

$("#txtSearch").on("keyup", function (event) {
    if (event.keyCode==13) {
        $("#btnSearch").get(0).click();
    }
});

To do it with normal JavaScript:

document.getElementById("txtSearch").addEventListener("keyup", function (event) {
    if (event.keyCode==13) { 
        document.getElementById("#btnSearch").click();
    }
});

Answer 4

This also might help, a small JavaScript function, which works fine:

<script type="text/javascript">
function blank(a) { if(a.value == a.defaultValue) a.value = ""; }

function unblank(a) { if(a.value == "") a.value = a.defaultValue; }
</script> 
<input type="text" value="email goes here" onfocus="blank(this)" onblur="unblank(this)" />

I know this question is solved, but I just found something, which can be helpful for others.

Answer 5

In jQuery, the following would work:

$("#id_of_textbox").keyup(function(event) {
    if (event.keyCode === 13) {
        $("#id_of_button").click();
    }
});

$("#pw").keyup(function(event) {
    if (event.keyCode === 13) {
        $("#myButton").click();
    }
});

$("#myButton").click(function() {
  alert("Button code executed.");
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

Username:<input id="username" type="text"><br>
Password:&nbsp;<input id="pw" type="password"><br>
<button id="myButton">Submit</button>

Or in plain JavaScript, the following would work:

document.getElementById("id_of_textbox")
    .addEventListener("keyup", function(event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    if (event.keyCode === 13) {
        document.getElementById("id_of_button").click();
    }
});

document.getElementById("pw")
    .addEventListener("keyup", function(event) {
    event.preventDefault();
    if (event.keyCode === 13) {
        document.getElementById("myButton").click();
    }
});

function buttonCode()
{
  alert("Button code executed.");
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

Username:<input id="username" type="text"><br>
Password:&nbsp;<input id="pw" type="password"><br>
<button id="myButton" onclick="buttonCode()">Submit</button>

Answer 6

In plain JavaScript,

if (document.layers) {
  document.captureEvents(Event.KEYDOWN);
}

document.onkeydown = function (evt) {
  var keyCode = evt ? (evt.which ? evt.which : evt.keyCode) : event.keyCode;
  if (keyCode == 13) {
    // For Enter.
    // Your function here.
  }
  if (keyCode == 27) {
    // For Escape.
    // Your function here.
  } else {
    return true;
  }
};

I noticed that the reply is given in jQuery only, so I thought of giving something in plain JavaScript as well.