Load external css file like scripts in jquery which is compatible in ie also

Quick function based on responses.

loadCSS = function(href) {

  var cssLink = $("<link>");
  $("head").append(cssLink); //IE hack: append before setting href

  cssLink.attr({
    rel:  "stylesheet",
    type: "text/css",
    href: href
  });

};

Usage:

loadCSS("/css/file.css");

$("head").append("<link>");
var css = $("head").children(":last");
css.attr({
      rel:  "stylesheet",
      type: "text/css",
      href: "address_of_your_css"
});

I think what the OP wanted to do was to load a style sheet asynchronously and add it. This works for me in Chrome 22, FF 16 and IE 8 for sets of CSS rules stored as text:

$.ajax({
    url: href,
    dataType: 'text',
    success: function(data) {
        $('<style type="text/css">\n' + data + '</style>').appendTo("head");                    
    }                  
});

In my case, I also sometimes want the loaded CSS to replace CSS that was previously loaded this way. To do that, I put a comment at the beginning, say "/* Flag this ID=102 */", and then I can do this:

// Remove old style
$("head").children().each(function(index, ele) {
    if (ele.innerHTML && ele.innerHTML.substring(0, 30).match(/\/\* Flag this ID=102 \*\//)) {
        $(ele).remove();
        return false;    // Stop iterating since we removed something
    }
});

    //load css first, then print <link> to header, and execute callback
    //just set var href above this..
    $.ajax({
          url: href,
          dataType: 'css',
          success: function(){                  
                $('<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="'+href+'" />').appendTo("head");
                //your callback
            }
    });

For Jquery 1.2.6 and above ( omitting the fancy attributes functions above ).

I am doing it this way because I think that this will ensure that your requested stylesheet is loaded by ajax before you try to stick it into the head. Therefore, the callback is executed after the stylesheet is ready.

Here is a function that will load CSS files with a success or failure callback. The failure callback will be called just once, if one or more resources fail to load. I think this approach is better than some of the other solutions because inserting a element into the DOM with an HREF causes an additional browser request (albeit, the request will likely come from cache, depending on response headers).

function loadCssFiles(urls, successCallback, failureCallback) {

    $.when.apply($,
        $.map(urls, function(url) {
            return $.get(url, function(css) {
                $("<style>" + css + "</style>").appendTo("head");
            });
        })
    ).then(function() {
        if (typeof successCallback === 'function') successCallback();
    }).fail(function() {
        if (typeof failureCallback === 'function') failureCallback();
    });

}

Usage as so:

loadCssFiles(["https://test.com/style1.css", "https://test.com/style2.css",],
    function() {
    alert("All resources loaded");
}, function() {
    alert("One or more resources failed to load");
});

Here is another function that will load both CSS and javascript files:

function loadJavascriptAndCssFiles(urls, successCallback, failureCallback) {

    $.when.apply($,
        $.map(urls, function(url) {
            if(url.endsWith(".css")) {
                return $.get(url, function(css) {
                    $("<style>" + css + "</style>").appendTo("head");
                });
            } else {
                return $.getScript(url);
            }
        })
    ).then(function() {
        if (typeof successCallback === 'function') successCallback();
    }).fail(function() {
        if (typeof failureCallback === 'function') failureCallback();
    });

}

Based on your comment under @Raul's answer, I can think of two ways to include a callback:

1. Have getScript call the file that loads the css.
2. Load the contents of the css file with AJAX, and append to <style>. Your callback would be the callback from $.get or whatever you use to load the css file contents.