How to distinguish between left and right mouse click with jQuery

user_128398 0
Viewed 427182

How do you obtain the clicked mouse button using jQuery?

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

this is triggered by both right and left click, what is the way of being able to catch right mouse click? I'd be happy if something like below exists:

$('div').bind('rightclick', function(){ 
    alert('right mouse button is pressed');
});
right-click jquery-events jquery javascript
20 Answers

Edit: I changed it to work for dynamically added elements using .on() in jQuery 1.7 or above:

$(document).on("contextmenu", ".element", function(e){
   alert('Context Menu event has fired!');
   return false;
});

Demo: jsfiddle.net/Kn9s7/5

[Start of original post] This is what worked for me:

$('.element').bind("contextmenu",function(e){
   alert('Context Menu event has fired!');
   return false;
});

In case you are into multiple solutions ^^

Edit: Tim Down brings up a good point that it's not always going to be a right-click that fires the contextmenu event, but also when the context menu key is pressed (which is arguably a replacement for a right-click)

user_5454910 

$("#element").live('click', function(e) {
  if( (!$.browser.msie && e.button == 0) || ($.browser.msie && e.button == 1) ) {
       alert("Left Button");
    }
    else if(e.button == 2){
       alert("Right Button");
    }
});

Update for the current state of the things:

var $log = $("div.log");
$("div.target").on("mousedown", function() {
  $log.text("Which: " + event.which);
  if (event.which === 1) {
    $(this).removeClass("right middle").addClass("left");
  } else if (event.which === 2) {
    $(this).removeClass("left right").addClass("middle");
  } else if (event.which === 3) {
    $(this).removeClass("left middle").addClass("right");
  }
});
div.target {
  border: 1px solid blue;
  height: 100px;
  width: 100px;
}

div.target.left {
  background-color: #0faf3d;
}

div.target.right {
  background-color: #f093df;
}

div.target.middle {
  background-color: #00afd3;
}

div.log {
  text-align: left;
  color: #f00;
}
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="target"></div>
<div class="log"></div>

user_131980

It seems to me that a slight adaptation of TheVillageIdiot's answer would be cleaner:

$('#element').bind('click', function(e) {
  if (e.button == 2) {
    alert("Right click");
  }
  else {
    alert("Some other click");
  }
}

EDIT: JQuery provides an e.which attribute, returning 1, 2, 3 for left, middle, and right click respectively. So you could also use if (e.which == 3) { alert("right click"); }

See also: answers to "Triggering onclick event using middle click"

user_2082570

To those who are wondering if they should or not use event.which in vanilla JS or Angular : It's now deprecated so prefer using event.buttons instead.

Note : With this method and (mousedown) event:

  • left click press is associated to 1
  • right click press is associated to 2
  • scroll button press is associated with 4

and (mouseup) event will NOT return the same numbers but 0 instead.

Source : https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MouseEvent/buttons

user_65719230 
$("body").on({
    click: function(){alert("left click");},
    contextmenu: function(){alert("right click");}   
});
user_81125830

Oold old post - but thought would share with complete answer to people asking above about all mouse click event types.

Add this script so it applies to the entire page:

var onMousedown = function (e) {
     if (e.which === 1) {/* Left Mouse Click */}
     else if (e.which === 2) {/* Middle Mouse Click */}
     else if (e.which === 3) {/* Right Mouse Click */}
};
clickArea.addEventListener("mousedown", onMousedown);

Note: Make sure you 'return false;' on the element being clicked - is really important.

Cheers!

user_52326340 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>JS Mouse Events - Button Demo</title>
</head>
<body>
    <button id="btn">Click me with any mouse button: left, right, middle, ...</button>
    <p id="message"></p>
    <script>
        let btn = document.querySelector('#btn');

        // disable context menu when right-mouse clicked
        btn.addEventListener('contextmenu', (e) => {
            e.preventDefault();
        });

        // show the mouse event message
        btn.addEventListener('mouseup', (e) => {
            let msg = document.querySelector('#message');
            switch (e.button) {
                case 0:
                    msg.textContent = 'Left mouse button clicked.';
                    break;
                case 1:
                    msg.textContent = 'Middle mouse button clicked.';
                    break;
                case 2:
                    msg.textContent = 'Right mouse button clicked.';
                    break;
                default:
                    msg.textContent = `Unknown mouse button code: ${event.button}`;
            }
        });
    </script>
</body>
</html>
user_147450900

you can try this code:

event.button

Return Value: A Number, representing which mouse button that was pressed when the mouse event occured.

Possible values:

0 : Left mouse button 1 : Wheel button or middle button (if present) 2 : Right mouse button Note: Internet Explorer 8 and earlier has different return values:

1 : Left mouse button 2 : Right mouse button 4 : Wheel button or middle button (if present) Note: For a left-hand configured mouse, the return values are reversed

user_139139070
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