Jquery bind double click and single click separately

Question

Is there something in jquery that would allow me to differentiate between behavior on double click and single click?

When I bind both to same element only the single click gets executed.

Is there a way that wait for some time before execution of the single click to see if the user clicks again or not?

Thanks :)

Answer 1

I found that John Strickler's answer did not quite do what I was expecting. Once the alert is triggered by a second click within the two-second window, every subsequent click triggers another alert until you wait two seconds before clicking again. So with John's code, a triple click acts as two double clicks where I would expect it to act like a double click followed by a single click.

I have reworked his solution to function in this way and to flow in a way my mind can better comprehend. I dropped the delay down from 2000 to 700 to better simulate what I would feel to be a normal sensitivity. Here's the fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/KpCwN/4/.

Thanks for the foundation, John. I hope this alternate version is useful to others.

var DELAY = 700, clicks = 0, timer = null;

$(function(){

    $("a").on("click", function(e){

        clicks++;  //count clicks

        if(clicks === 1) {

            timer = setTimeout(function() {

                alert("Single Click");  //perform single-click action    
                clicks = 0;             //after action performed, reset counter

            }, DELAY);

        } else {

            clearTimeout(timer);    //prevent single-click action
            alert("Double Click");  //perform double-click action
            clicks = 0;             //after action performed, reset counter
        }

    })
    .on("dblclick", function(e){
        e.preventDefault();  //cancel system double-click event
    });

});