CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptclick
XCS
XCS

Reputation: 28137

jQuery check if target is link

I have a global function to capture clicks.

$(document).click(function(e){
  //do something
  if(clickedOnLink)
    //do something
});

I want to do additional stuff when the target is a link, but if the the <a> tag actually surrounds a div (as HTML5 allows this) the target will be that div.

http://jsfiddle.net/Af37v/

Upvotes: 16

Views: 22312

Answers (7)

James Montagne
James Montagne

Reputation: 78630

I believe using is will actually have better performance than the answers suggesting closest:

$(e.target).is('a, a *');

This checks if the element itself is an a or if it is contained with an a.

This should be faster than closest because it will use matches on the element itself and not need to traverse up the DOM tree as closest will do.

Upvotes: 21

Ari
Ari

Reputation: 4969

If the exact target is link, then you can use .is()

Example:

$(".element").on("click", function(e){
  if($(e.target).is("a")){
    //do your stuff
  }
});

EDIT:

If it is surrounded by other element that is inside an anchor tag, then you can use closest() and check whether it have anchor tag parent or not by using length

Example:

$(".element").on("click", function(e){
  if($(e.target).closest("a").length){
    //do your stuff
  }
});

Upvotes: 3

SeinopSys
SeinopSys

Reputation: 8937

You can test if there's a <div> under <a> by testing if the .children() <div> has anything inside it. If nothing is inside, or there is no <div>, the if statement will return false.

I suggest this code:

$(document).click(function(e){
    var willRedirect = ($('a[href="/"]').attr('href').indexOf('#') == -1 ? true : false),

    //run code

    if ( willRedirect === false ){
        e.preventDefault();

        //the link will not redirect

        if ( $(this).children('div').html() ){
            //there is a <div> inside <a> containing something
        }
        else {
            //there is no <div> inside <a>
        }
    }
    else {
        //the link is not pointing to your site
    }
});

Upvotes: 0

Robin Drexler
Robin Drexler

Reputation: 4457

Updated: You could check if the target is an a or if a parent is an a.

$(function () {
    $(document).on('click', function (e) {
        $target = $(e.target);
        if ($target.closest('a').length > 0) {
            alert('i am an a');
        }
    });
});

http://jsfiddle.net/8jeGV/4/

Upvotes: 0

gen_Eric
gen_Eric

Reputation: 227200

You can try to see if the element you clicked on either is or is a child of an <a> tag.

$(document).click(function(e){
    if($(e.target).closest('a').length){
        alert('You clicked a link');
    }
    else{
        alert('You did not click a link');
    }
});

Upvotes: 35

kreig
kreig

Reputation: 990

Try this

$(document).click(function(e){
  //do something
  if($(this).closest('a').length)
    //do something
});

Upvotes: 5

Greg
Greg

Reputation: 1719

With jquery just get the tagName attribute $("a").prop("tagName");

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions