How to distinguish between left and right mouse click with jQuery

Question

How do you obtain the clicked mouse button using jQuery?

$(\'div\').bind(\'click\', function(){
    alert(\'clicked\');
});

this is trigger

Answer 1

event.which === 1 ensures it's a left-click (when using jQuery).

But you should also think about modifier keys: ctrlcmdshiftalt

If you're only interested in catching simple, unmodified left-clicks, you can do something like this:

var isSimpleClick = function (event) {
  return !(
    event.which !== 1 || // not a left click
    event.metaKey ||     // "open link in new tab" (mac)
    event.ctrlKey ||     // "open link in new tab" (windows/linux)
    event.shiftKey ||    // "open link in new window"
    event.altKey         // "save link as"
  );
};

$('a').on('click', function (event) {
  if (isSimpleClick(event)) {
    event.preventDefault();
    // do something...
  }
});