# Phaser: Keyboard events

> Learn how to handle keyboard events in Phaser by listening on this.input.keyboard, or using createCursorKeys to check arrow keys with isDown.

Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2021-04-20 | Topics: [Phaser](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/phaser/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/phaser-keyboard-events/

> This post is part of a Phaser series. [Click here](https://flaviocopes.com/phaser-setup/) to see the first post of the series.

Mouse events are fired on a GameObject, because with the mouse we click on elements.

With the keyboard instead we press keys, not linked to any GameObject in particular.

So we listen for those events on `this.input.keyboard`, like this:

```js
this.input.keyboard.on(<event>, function() {

})
```

`<event>` is a string that can be `keyup` or `keydown`, to intercept all keys pressed, or a combination of it with a letter identifying a specific key, like:

- `keyup-A`
- `keyup-THREE`
- `keydown-F12`
- `keydown-ENTER`

We have a large number of identifiers we can use, including:

- A ~ Z
- F1 ~ F12
- BACKSPACE
- TAB
- ENTER
- SHIFT
- CTRL. ALT
- PAUSE
- CAPS_LOCK
- ESC
- SPACE
- PAGE_UP, PAGE_DOWN
- END, HOME
- LEFT, UP, RIGHT,DOWN
- PRINT_SCREEN
- INSERT, DELETE
- ZERO, ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE
- NUMPAD_ZERO, NUMPAD_ONE, NUMPAD_TWO, NUMPAD_THREE, NUMPAD_FOUR, NUMPAD_FIVE, NUMPAD_SIX, NUMPAD_SEVEN, NUMPAD_EIGHT, NUMPAD_NINE, NUMPAD_ADD, NUMPAD_SUBTRACT

Instead of listenining on individual keys, we can get an object calling `this.input.keyboard.createCursorKeys()`:

```js
let cursors

function create() {
  cursors = this.input.keyboard.createCursorKeys()
}
```

and in the `update()` function, we can check if one specific key has been pressed, and do something when this happens:

```js
function update() {
  if (cursors.right.isDown) {
    text.x += 5
  }
  if (cursors.left.isDown) {
    text.x -= 5
  }
  if (cursors.up.isDown) {
    text.y -= 5
  }
  if (cursors.down.isDown) {
    text.y -= 5
  }
}
```