I'm calling a function, that builds a table which includes several links.

I want to check if a link has been clicked with right or left mouse.

I tried to add the following part to the <a> hyperlink.

onmousedown="function mouseDown(e){
switch (e.which) {
   case 1: alert('left'); break;
   case 2: alert('middle'); break;
   case 3: alert('right'); break; }
}"

But nothing happens If I click on a link.

I'm calling a function, that builds a table which includes several links.

I want to check if a link has been clicked with right or left mouse.

I tried to add the following part to the <a> hyperlink.

onmousedown="function mouseDown(e){
switch (e.which) {
   case 1: alert('left'); break;
   case 2: alert('middle'); break;
   case 3: alert('right'); break; }
}"

But nothing happens If I click on a link.

• javascript
• right-click
• mousedown

• Don't use intrinsic event handler attributes. Use DOM event binding instead. – Quentin Commented Feb 29, 2012 at 14:37
• I've tried, but it did not work for me. Maybe because the table is loaded later (and does not appear in source code of the rendered page) – Keith L. Commented Feb 29, 2012 at 14:44

2 Answers 2

The html:

<a href="#" onmousedown="mouseDown(event);">aaa</a>​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The javascript:

function mouseDown(e) {
  e = e || window.event;
  switch (e.which) {
    case 1: alert('left'); break;
    case 2: alert('middle'); break;
    case 3: alert('right'); break; 
  }
}​

The demo.

Here's a modification of xdazz's answer that supports browsers that use e.button, normalizes the value, and stores it in e.which. The added lines are what are used in the JQuery library.

function mouseDown(e) {
  e = e || window.event;
  if ( !e.which && e.button !== undefined ) {
    e.which = ( e.button & 1 ? 1 : ( e.button & 2 ? 3 : ( e.button & 4 ? 2 : 0 ) ) );
  }
  switch (e.which) {
    case 1: alert('left'); break;
    case 2: alert('middle'); break;
    case 3: alert('right'); break; 
  }
}​