KeyboardEvent: shiftKey property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The KeyboardEvent.shiftKey read-only property is a boolean value that indicates if the shift key was pressed (true) or not (false) when the event occurred.

The pressing of the shift key may change the key of the event too. For example, pressing B generates key: "b", while simultaneously pressing Shift generates key: "B".

Value

A boolean value.

Examples

html
<p>
  Press any character key, with or without holding down the SHIFT key.<br />
  You can also use the SHIFT key together with the ALT key.
</p>
<pre id="output"></pre>
js
const output = document.getElementById("output");

function showChar(e) {
  output.textContent = `Key KeyDown: "${e.key}"
SHIFT key KeyDown: ${e.shiftKey}
`;
}

document.addEventListener("keydown", showChar);

Specifications

Specification
UI Events
# dom-keyboardevent-shiftkey

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
shiftKey
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 1 (Release date: 2008-12-11)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 12 (Release date: 2015-07-29)
footnote Full support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 1.5 (Release date: 2005-11-29)
footnote Full support
Opera – Full support
Opera 12.1 (Release date: 2012-11-20)
footnote Full support
Safari – Full support
Safari 1.2 (Release date: 2004-02-02)
footnote Full support
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 18 (Release date: 2012-06-27)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 4 (Release date: 2011-03-29)
footnote Full support
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 12.1 (Release date: 2012-10-09)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
footnote Full support
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27)
footnote Full support
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 4.4 (Release date: 2013-12-09)
footnote Full support
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
footnote Full support

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support

See also