How to detect control+click in Javascript from an onclick div attribute?

In your handler, check the window.event object for the property ctrlKey as such:

function selectMe(){
    if (window.event.ctrlKey) {
        //ctrl was held down during the click
    }
}

UPDATE: the above solution depends on a proprietary property on the window object, which perhaps should not be counted on to exist in all browsers. Luckily, we now have a working draft that takes care of our needs, and according to MDN, it is widely supported. Example:

HTML

<span onclick="handler(event)">Click me</span>

JS

function handler(ev) {
  console.log('CTRL pressed during click:', ev.ctrlKey);
}

The same applies for keyboard events

See also KeyboardEvent.getModifierState()


I'd recommend using JQuery's keyup and keydown methods on the document, as it normalizes the event codes, to make one solution crossbrowser.

For the right click, you can use oncontextmenu, however beware it can be buggy in IE8. See a chart of compatibility here:

http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/events/contextmenu.html

<p onclick="selectMe(1)" oncontextmenu="selectMe(2)">Click me</p>

$(document).keydown(function(event){
    if(event.which=="17")
        cntrlIsPressed = true;
});

$(document).keyup(function(){
    cntrlIsPressed = false;
});

var cntrlIsPressed = false;


function selectMe(mouseButton)
{
    if(cntrlIsPressed)
    {
        switch(mouseButton)
        {
            case 1:
                alert("Cntrl +  left click");
                break;
            case 2:
                alert("Cntrl + right click");
                break;
            default:
                break;
        }
    }


}

Because it's been a several years since this question was first asked, the other answers are outdated or incomplete.

Here's the code for a modern implementation using jQuery:

$( 'div#1' ).on( 'click', function( event ) {
    if ( event.ctrlKey ) {
        //is ctrl + click
    } else {
        //normal click
    }
} );

As for detecting right-clicks, this was correctly provided by another user but I'll list it here just to have everything in one place.

$( 'div#1' ).on( 'contextmenu', function( event ) {
    // right-click handler
} ) ;