Check if user is using IE with jQuery

Question

I am calling a function like the one below by click on divs with a certain class.

Is there a way I can check when starting the function if a user is using Internet Explorer and abort / cancel it if they are using other browsers so that it only runs for IE users ? The users here would all be on IE8 or higher versions so I would not need to cover IE7 and lower versions.

If I could tell which browser they are using that would be great but is not required.

Example function:

$('.myClass').on('click', function(event)
{
    // my function
});

Answer 1

Try this if you are using jquery version >=1.9,

var browser;
jQuery.uaMatch = function (ua) {
    ua = ua.toLowerCase();

    var match = /(chrome)[ \/]([\w.]+)/.exec(ua) ||
        /(webkit)[ \/]([\w.]+)/.exec(ua) ||
        /(opera)(?:.*version|)[ \/]([\w.]+)/.exec(ua) ||
        /(msie) ([\w.]+)/.exec(ua) || 
        ua.indexOf("compatible") < 0 && /(mozilla)(?:.*? rv:([\w.]+)|)/.exec(ua) ||
       /(Trident)[\/]([\w.]+)/.exec(ua) || [];

    return {
        browser: match[1] || "",
        version: match[2] || "0"
    };
};
// Don't clobber any existing jQuery.browser in case it's different
if (!jQuery.browser) {
    matched = jQuery.uaMatch(navigator.userAgent);
    browser = {};

    if (matched.browser) {
        browser[matched.browser] = true;
        browser.version = matched.version;
    }

    // Chrome is Webkit, but Webkit is also Safari.
    if (browser.chrome) {
        browser.webkit = true;
    } else if (browser.webkit) {
        browser.safari = true;
    }

    jQuery.browser = browser;
}

If using jQuery version <1.9 ($.browser was removed in jQuery 1.9) use the following code instead:

$('.myClass').on('click', function (event) {
    if ($.browser.msie) {
        alert($.browser.version);
    }
});

Answer 2

Using the answers above; simple & condensed returning Boolean:

var isIE = /(MSIE|Trident\/|Edge\/)/i.test(navigator.userAgent);

Answer 3

Many answers here, and I'd like to add my input. IE 11 was being such an ass concerning flexbox (see all its issues and inconsistencies here) that I really needed an easy way to check if a user is using any IE browser (up to and including 11) but excluding Edge, because Edge is actually pretty nice.

Based on the answers given here, I wrote a simple function returning a global boolean variable which you can then use down the line. It's very easy to check for IE.

var isIE;
(function() {
    var ua = window.navigator.userAgent,
        msie = ua.indexOf('MSIE '),
        trident = ua.indexOf('Trident/');

    isIE = (msie > -1 || trident > -1) ? true : false;
})();

if (isIE) {
    alert("I am an Internet Explorer!");
}

This way you only have to do the look up once, and you store the result in a variable, rather than having to fetch the result on each function call. (As far as I know you don't even have to wait for document ready to execute this code as the user-agent is not related to the DOM.)