JQuery .click() selector ignore child elements?

Question

I need to fire an event when the user clicks on an element or anything inside it EXCEPT if he clicks on an <a> element.

This is what I'm trying now:

$( "div:not(a)" ).click(function(e) {
    alert("hello world");
});

You can better understand it here:

How can I do this?

possible duplicate of [Prevent execution of parent event handler](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1398582/prevent-execution-of-parent-event-handler) — Felix Kling, Aug 26 '13 at 20:31
FYI, the `div:not(a)` selector doesn't make a lot of sense. It means *"select every element with tag name `div` which has not tag name `a`*". Since an element cannot have two tag names, `div:not(a)` is equivalent to `div`. — Felix Kling, Aug 26 '13 at 20:31
possible duplicate of [check element type clicked](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17797038/check-element-type-clicked) — Chris Rockwell, Aug 26 '13 at 20:38

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 26 '13 at 20:35

2

You could use:

$("div").click(function (e) {
    if (e.target.nodeName.toLowerCase() != 'a') alert("hello world");
});

answered Aug 26 '13 at 20:35

j08691

Martin Seeler · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-26T20:41:20.440

2

Since your div is never an a, this won't work.

You have to check your target element for an a tag like this:

$('div').click(function(event) {
    var $target = $(event.target);
    if(!$target.is("a") ) {
      alert("hello world");
    }
});

I've updated your Fiddle: Have a look

edited Aug 26 '13 at 20:41

answered Aug 26 '13 at 20:36

Martin Seeler

2

This looks eerily familiar :) You might want to update your "e" argument to "event" to reflect the object you use in your function. – Mister Epic Aug 26 '13 at 20:41
Thanks, haven't noticed that. :-) – Martin Seeler Aug 26 '13 at 20:48

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 26 '13 at 20:39

1

This is untested, but hopefully gives you the idea:

$(function(){
    $('div').click(function(e){
         if($(e.target).is('a')){
              e.stopPropagation();
         }
    });
});

answered Aug 26 '13 at 20:39

Mister Epic

3 Answers3