PointerEvent.pointerType

The pointerType read-only property of the PointerEvent interface indicates the device type that caused the pointer event. The supported values are the following strings:

mouse

The event was generated by a mouse device.

pen

The event was generated by a pen or stylus device.

touch

The event was generated by a touch such as a finger.

If the device type cannot be detected by the browser, the value can be an empty string (""). If the browser supports pointer device types other than those listed above, the value should be vendor prefixed to avoid conflicting names for different types of devices.

Syntax

var pType = pointerEvent.pointerType;

Return value

pType

The event's pointer type, either the string mouse, pen or touch.

Example

This example illustrates using the value of the pointerType to call the appropriate pointer type processing function.

targetElement.addEventListener("pointerdown", function(ev) {
   // Call the appropriate pointer type handler
   switch (ev.pointerType) {
     case "mouse": 
       process_pointer_mouse(ev); 
       break;
     case "pen": 
       process_pointer_pen(ev); 
       break;
     case "touch": 
       process_pointer_touch(ev); 
       break;
     default:
       console.log("pointerType " + ev.pointerType + " is Not suported");
   }
 }, false);

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
Pointer Events The definition of 'pointerType' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition.
Pointer Events – Level 2 The definition of 'pointerType' in that specification.	Working Draft	Non-stable version.
CSS Object Model (CSSOM) View Module The definition of 'MouseEvent' in that specification.	Working Draft	Redefines MouseEvent from long to double. This means that a PointerEvent whose pointerType is mouse will be a double.

Browser compatibility

[1] This feature is currently hidden behind a flag; to enable it and experiment, set the dom.w3c_pointer_events.enabled preference to true in about:config.