Is it possible, using JavaScript or jQuery, to change the content of a text input field while the user types?
E.g. typing a + up
would change the a
to å
, while keeping the input cursor at the same position.
Is it possible, using JavaScript or jQuery, to change the content of a text input field while the user types?
E.g. typing a + up
would change the a
to å
, while keeping the input cursor at the same position.
Yes, change it on the fly and keep selectionStart
and selectionEnd
at the previous position: http://jsfiddle.net/pimvdb/p2jL3/3/.
selectionStart
and selectionEnd
represent the selection bounds, and are equal to each other when there is no selection, in which case they represent the cursor position.
Edit: Decided to make a jQuery plugin of it, since it may come in handy later and it's easy to implement anywhere that way.
(function($) {
var down = {}; // keys that are currently pressed down
replacements = { // replacement maps
37: { // left
'a': 'ã'
},
38: { // up
'a': 'â'
},
39: { // right
'a': 'á'
},
40: { // down
'a': 'à'
}
};
$.fn.specialChars = function() {
return this.keydown(function(e) {
down[e.keyCode] = true; // this key is now down
if(down[37] || down[38] || down[39] || down[40]) { // if an arrow key is down
var value = $(this).val(), // textbox value
pos = $(this).prop('selectionStart'), // cursor position
char = value.charAt(pos - 1), // old character
replace = replacements[e.keyCode][char] || char; // new character if available
$(this).val(value.substring(0, pos - 1) // set text to: text before character
+ replace // + new character
+ value.substring(pos)) // + text after cursor
.prop({selectionStart: pos, // reset cursor position
selectionEnd: pos});
return false; // prevent going to start/end of textbox
}
}).keyup(function(e) {
down[e.keyCode] = false; // this key is now not down anymore
}).blur(function() {
down = {}; // all keys are not down in the textbox when it loses focus
});
};
})(jQuery);
I once had to do a similar thing. I think this is much simpler. Modify it to meet your needs:
$("input#s").keyup(function(e) {
var m=$("input#s");
var value= m.val();
var pos = m.prop('selectionStart');
value=value.replace(">","»");
m.val(value);
m.prop({'selectionStart':pos,'selectionEnd':pos});
});