Getting Deleted character

Question

in in Input field, if the user presses Backspace or Delete key, is there a way to get the deleted character.

I need to check it against a RegExp.

Answer 1

The following will work in all major browsers for text <input> elements. It shouldn't be used for <textarea> elements because the getInputSelection function doesn't account for line breaks correctly in IE. See this answer for a (longer) function that will do this.

function getInputSelection(input) {
    var start = 0, end = 0;
    input.focus();
    if (    typeof input.selectionStart == "number" &&
            typeof input.selectionEnd == "number") {

        start = input.selectionStart;
        end = input.selectionEnd;
    } else if (document.selection && document.selection.createRange) {
        var range = document.selection.createRange();
        if (range) {
            var inputRange = input.createTextRange();
            var workingRange = inputRange.duplicate();
            var bookmark = range.getBookmark();
            inputRange.moveToBookmark(bookmark);
            workingRange.setEndPoint("EndToEnd", inputRange);
            end = workingRange.text.length;
            workingRange.setEndPoint("EndToStart", inputRange);
            start = workingRange.text.length;
        }
    }
    return {
        start: start,
        end: end,
        length: end - start
    };
}

document.getElementById("aTextBox").onkeydown = function(evt) {
    evt = evt || window.event;
    var keyCode = evt.keyCode;
    var deleteKey = (keyCode == 46), backspaceKey = (keyCode == 8);
    var sel, deletedText, val;
    if (deleteKey || backspaceKey) {
        val = this.value;
        sel = getInputSelection(this);
        if (sel.length) {
            deletedText = val.slice(sel.start, sel.end);
        } else {
            deletedText = val.charAt(deleteKey ? sel.start : sel.start - 1);
        }
        alert("About to be deleted: " + deletedText);
    }
};

Answer 2

No, there is no variable that stores the deleted char. Unless you have a history for Undo/Redo, but it would be difficult to get the information out of that component.

Easiest would be to compare the contents of the input field before and after delete/backspace have been pressed.

Answer 3

You could try something with the caret position:

function getCaretPosition(control){
  var position = {};
  if (control.selectionStart && control.selectionEnd){
    position.start = control.selectionStart;
    position.end = control.selectionEnd;
  } else {
    var range = document.selection.createRange();
    position.start = (range.offsetLeft - 1) / 7;
    position.end = position.start + (range.text.length);
  }

  position.length = position.end - position.start;
  return position;
}

document.getElementById('test').​​​​onkeydown = function(e){
  var selection = getCaretPosition(this);
  var val = this.value;

  if((e.keyCode==8 || e.keyCode==46) && selection.start!==selection.end){
    alert(val.substr(selection.start, selection.length));
  } else if(e.keyCode==8){
    alert(val.substr(selection.start-1, 1));
  } else if(e.keyCode==46){
    alert(val.substr(selection.start, 1));
  }
}​

Tested on Chrome 6. See jsFiddle for an example