You can’t do that directly using Javascript <script> tags. Media queries are used in linked CSS files or inline CSS styles. A basic example:
<link rel="stylesheet" media="screen and (min-width: 900px)" href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15823137/desktop.css"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" media="screen and (min-width: 571px)" href="tablet.css"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" media="screen and (max-width: 570px)" href="mobile.css"/>
Or directly in your stylesheets:
@media screen and (max-width: 599px) {
#mobile {
display: block;
}
}
However, you can use an external asset loader/media query library to do this (require.js, modernizr.js, enquire.js and others), In this case, I’m setting an example using enquire.js, as I think it’s very effective and doesn’t require jQuery by default:
Full example
1) Include enquire.js (available here):
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://stackoverflow.com/js/enquire.js"></script>
2) Create a load function – to load JS files:
<script type="text/javascript">
// This loads JS files in the head element
function loadJS(url)
{
// adding the script tag to the head
var head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.type="text/javascript";
script.src = url;
// fire the loading
head.appendChild(script);
}
</script>
3) Fire enquire.js and listen for media query changes (both on-load and on-resize):
<script type="text/javascript">
enquire.register("screen and (max-width: 599px)", {
match : function() {
// Load a mobile JS file
loadJS('mobile.js');
}
}).listen();
enquire.register("screen and (min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 899px)", {
match : function() {
// Load a tablet JS file
loadJS('tablet.js');
//console.log('tablet loaded');
}
}).listen();
enquire.register("screen and (min-width: 900px)", {
match : function() {
// Load a desktop JS file
loadJS('desktop.js');
//console.log('desktop loaded');
}
}).listen();
</script>
Putting it all together
Using a simple HTML page with enquire.js loaded from an external file:
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://stackoverflow.com/enquire.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// This loads JS files in the head element
function loadJS(url)
{
// adding the script tag to the head
var head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
var script = document.createElement('script');
script.type="text/javascript";
script.src = url;
// fire the loading
head.appendChild(script);
}
</script>
<style>
body {
font-family: arial;
}
h1 {
font-size: 50pt;
}
#mobile {
display: none;
}
#tablet {
display: none;
}
#desktop {
display: none;
}
@media screen and (max-width: 599px) {
#mobile {
display: block;
}
}
@media screen and (min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 899px) {
#tablet {
display: block;
}
}
@media screen and (min-width: 900px) {
#desktop {
display: block;
}
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="desktop">
<h1>Desktop</h1>
</div>
<div id="tablet">
<h1>Tablet</h1>
</div>
<div id="mobile">
<h1>Mobile</h1>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
enquire.register("screen and (max-width: 599px)", {
match : function() {
// Load a JS file
loadJS('mobile.js');
}
}).listen();
enquire.register("screen and (min-width: 600px) and (max-width: 899px)", {
match : function() {
loadJS('tablet.js');
//console.log('tablet loaded');
}
}).listen();
enquire.register("screen and (min-width: 900px)", {
match : function() {
loadJS('desktop.js');
//console.log('desktop loaded');
}
}).listen();
</script>
</body>
</html>
In addition to loading JS files, you could create a CSS loader too, which would work in the same way (conditionally), but that defeats the object of using @media in CSS. It’s worth reading the usage explanations for enquire.js, as it can do a lot more than I’ve illustrated here.
Caveat: Nothing above uses jQuery, but you could take advantage of some of the functions it offers; loading scripts for example – or executing other functions that you need to.