Prevent keypress event trigger when input is in focus

Question

I am currently using a switch to trigger some code when a key is pressed. This isn't the exact code, but its basically what I am using (this is just for the sake of keeping it short and simple on here.)

$(document).keydown(function(e) {
switch(e.keyCode) { 

case 39:
e.preventDefault();
    alert("Arrow Key");

break;

case 37:
   e.preventDefault();
    alert("Arrow Key");
}
});

How can I prevent the events from firing when an input box is in focus?

Answer 1

I think you mean that you want to do e.preventDefault() only if the target element was not an input tag. You can do this like this:

$(document).keydown(function(e) {
    if (e.target.nodeName.toLowerCase() !== 'input') {
        switch(e.keyCode) { 
            case 39:
                e.preventDefault();
                alert("Arrow Key");

                break;

            case 37:
                e.preventDefault();
                alert("Arrow Key");
        }
    }
});

e.target is the element where the event originated. Alternatively, you can use jQuery's event delegation API:

$(document).delegate(':not(input)', 'keydown', function(e) {
    switch(e.keyCode) { 
        case 39:
            e.preventDefault();
            alert("Arrow Key");

            break;

        case 37:
            e.preventDefault();
            alert("Arrow Key");
    }
});

Edit Updated my answer to do "not an input" rather than "is an input" checks.