jQuery keyboard events

Question

Using jQuery, I would like to capture a keyboard event that is:

• before the user lifts their finger from the key
• after the characters

Answer 1

Use keyup event, an example on jsFiddle

$("textarea").keyup(function(e){
   alert($(this).val());
});

It happens after you lift the key. I don't know what you want to achieve, but you can store the state before lifting the key (on keydown or keypress) and restoring later if needed. You also can stop the output in the keyup event using e.preventDefault(), so even after the key is up it will not register the values in the area.