How can I determine which character was deleted from a JTextArea by the 'Delete' or 'Backspace' keys?

JTextArea is a 'view' on javax.swing.text.PlainDocument. The PlainDocument class supports registration of javax.swing.event.DocumentListener. Thus you could register a DocumentListener and in the

public void removeUpdate(DocumentEvent e)

ALternatively you could install an alternate keymap whereby you intercept the 'Delete' and 'Backspace' key.

Please look at -

• http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/docs/api/javax/swing/text/JTextComponent.html
• http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/docs/api/javax/swing/text/JTextComponent.html#setKeymap(javax.swing.text.Keymap)
• http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/docs/api/javax/swing/text/Keymap.html
• http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/docs/api/javax/swing/text/DefaultEditorKit.html#deletePrevCharAction
• http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/docs/api/javax/swing/text/DefaultEditorKit.html#deleteNextCharAction