Suppose that I have a <div> that I wish to center in the browser's display (viewport). To do so, I need to calculate the width and height of the <div> element.
What should I use? Please include information on browser compatibility.
1003
votes
Keep in mind that getting an element's height through any method always has a performance impact as it makes the browser recalculate the position of all elements in the page (reflow). Therefore, avoid doing it too much. Checkout this list for what kind of things trigger a reflow.
– Marcelo Lazaroni
15 Answers
1442
votes
You should use the .offsetWidth and .offsetHeight properties.
Note they belong to the element, not .style.
var width = document.getElementById('foo').offsetWidth;
Function .getBoundingClientRect() returns dimensions and location of element as floating-point numbers after performing CSS transforms.
> console.log(document.getElementById('id').getBoundingClientRect())
DOMRect {
bottom: 177,
height: 54.7,
left: 278.5,
right: 909.5,
top: 122.3,
width: 631,
x: 278.5,
y: 122.3,
}
226
votes
Take a look at Element.getBoundingClientRect().
This method will return an object containing the width, height, and some other useful values:
{
width: 960,
height: 71,
top: 603,
bottom: 674,
left: 360,
right: 1320
}
For Example:
var element = document.getElementById('foo');
var positionInfo = element.getBoundingClientRect();
var height = positionInfo.height;
var width = positionInfo.width;
I believe this does not have the issues that .offsetWidth and .offsetHeight do where they sometimes return 0 (as discussed in the comments here)
Another difference is getBoundingClientRect() may return fractional pixels, where .offsetWidth and .offsetHeight will round to the nearest integer.
IE8 Note: getBoundingClientRect does not return height and width on IE8 and below.*
If you must support IE8, use .offsetWidth and .offsetHeight:
var height = element.offsetHeight;
var width = element.offsetWidth;
Its worth noting that the Object returned by this method is not really a normal object. Its properties are not enumerable (so, for example, Object.keys doesn't work out-of-the-box.)
More info on this here: How best to convert a ClientRect / DomRect into a plain Object
Reference:
.offsetHeight: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLElement/offsetHeight.offsetWidth: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLElement/offsetWidth.getBoundingClientRect(): https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element/getBoundingClientRect
72
votes
NOTE: this answer was written in 2008. At the time the best cross-browser solution for most people really was to use jQuery. I'm leaving the answer here for posterity and, if you're using jQuery, this is a good way to do it. If you're using some other framework or pure JavaScript the accepted answer is probably the way to go.
As of jQuery 1.2.6 you can use one of the core CSS functions, height and width (or outerHeight and outerWidth, as appropriate).
var height = $("#myDiv").height();
var width = $("#myDiv").width();
var docHeight = $(document).height();
var docWidth = $(document).width();
50
votes
Just in case it is useful to anyone, I put a textbox, button and div all with the same css:
width:200px;
height:20px;
border:solid 1px #000;
padding:2px;
<input id="t" type="text" />
<input id="b" type="button" />
<div id="d"></div>
I tried it in chrome, firefox and ie-edge, I tried with jquery and without, and I tried it with and without box-sizing:border-box. Always with <!DOCTYPE html>
The results:
Firefox Chrome IE-Edge
with w/o with w/o with w/o box-sizing
$("#t").width() 194 200 194 200 194 200
$("#b").width() 194 194 194 194 194 194
$("#d").width() 194 200 194 200 194 200
$("#t").outerWidth() 200 206 200 206 200 206
$("#b").outerWidth() 200 200 200 200 200 200
$("#d").outerWidth() 200 206 200 206 200 206
$("#t").innerWidth() 198 204 198 204 198 204
$("#b").innerWidth() 198 198 198 198 198 198
$("#d").innerWidth() 198 204 198 204 198 204
$("#t").css('width') 200px 200px 200px 200px 200px 200px
$("#b").css('width') 200px 200px 200px 200px 200px 200px
$("#d").css('width') 200px 200px 200px 200px 200px 200px
$("#t").css('border-left-width') 1px 1px 1px 1px 1px 1px
$("#b").css('border-left-width') 1px 1px 1px 1px 1px 1px
$("#d").css('border-left-width') 1px 1px 1px 1px 1px 1px
$("#t").css('padding-left') 2px 2px 2px 2px 2px 2px
$("#b").css('padding-left') 2px 2px 2px 2px 2px 2px
$("#d").css('padding-left') 2px 2px 2px 2px 2px 2px
document.getElementById("t").getBoundingClientRect().width 200 206 200 206 200 206
document.getElementById("b").getBoundingClientRect().width 200 200 200 200 200 200
document.getElementById("d").getBoundingClientRect().width 200 206 200 206 200 206
document.getElementById("t").offsetWidth 200 206 200 206 200 206
document.getElementById("b").offsetWidth 200 200 200 200 200 200
document.getElementById("d").offsetWidth 200 206 200 206 200 206
24
votes
According to MDN: Determining the dimensions of elements
offsetWidth and offsetHeight return the "total amount of space an element occupies, including the width of the visible content, scrollbars (if any), padding, and border"
clientWidth and clientHeight return "how much space the actual displayed content takes up, including padding but not including the border, margins, or scrollbars"
scrollWidth and scrollHeight return the "actual size of the content, regardless of how much of it is currently visible"
So it depends on whether the measured content is expected to be out of the current viewable area.
6
votes
You only need to calculate it for IE7 and older (and only if your content doesn't have fixed size). I suggest using HTML conditional comments to limit hack to old IEs that don't support CSS2. For all other browsers use this:
<style type="text/css">
html,body {display:table; height:100%;width:100%;margin:0;padding:0;}
body {display:table-cell; vertical-align:middle;}
div {display:table; margin:0 auto; background:red;}
</style>
<body><div>test<br>test</div></body>
This is the perfect solution. It centers <div> of any size, and shrink-wraps it to size of its content.
4
votes
It is easy to modify the elements styles but kinda tricky to read the value.
JavaScript can't read any element style property (elem.style) coming from css(internal/external) unless you use the built in method call getComputedStyle in javascript.
getComputedStyle(element[, pseudo])
Element: The element to read the value for.
pseudo: A pseudo-element if required, for instance ::before. An empty string or no argument means the element itself.
The result is an object with style properties, like elem.style, but now with respect to all css classes.
For instance, here style doesn’t see the margin:
<head>
<style> body { color: red; margin: 5px } </style>
</head>
<body>
<script>
let computedStyle = getComputedStyle(document.body);
// now we can read the margin and the color from it
alert( computedStyle.marginTop ); // 5px
alert( computedStyle.color ); // rgb(255, 0, 0)
</script>
</body>
So modified your javaScript code to include the getComputedStyle of the element you wish to get it's width/height or other attribute
window.onload = function() {
var test = document.getElementById("test");
test.addEventListener("click", select);
function select(e) {
var elementID = e.target.id;
var element = document.getElementById(elementID);
let computedStyle = getComputedStyle(element);
var width = computedStyle.width;
console.log(element);
console.log(width);
}
}
Computed and resolved values
There are two concepts in CSS:
A computed style value is the value after all CSS rules and CSS inheritance is applied, as the result of the CSS cascade. It can look like height:1em or font-size:125%.
A resolved style value is the one finally applied to the element. Values like 1em or 125% are relative. The browser takes the computed value and makes all units fixed and absolute, for instance: height:20px or font-size:16px. For geometry properties resolved values may have a floating point, like width:50.5px.
A long time ago getComputedStyle was created to get computed values, but it turned out that resolved values are much more convenient, and the standard changed.
So nowadays getComputedStyle actually returns the resolved value of the property.
Please Note:
getComputedStyle requires the full property name
You should always ask for the exact property that you want, like paddingLeft or height or width. Otherwise the correct result is not guaranteed.
For instance, if there are properties paddingLeft/paddingTop, then what should we get for getComputedStyle(elem).padding? Nothing, or maybe a “generated” value from known paddings? There’s no standard rule here.
There are other inconsistencies. As an example, some browsers (Chrome) show 10px in the document below, and some of them (Firefox) – do not:
<style>
body {
margin: 30px;
height: 900px;
}
</style>
<script>
let style = getComputedStyle(document.body);
alert(style.margin); // empty string in Firefox
</script>
for more information https://javascript.info/styles-and-classes
2
votes
element.offsetWidth and element.offsetHeight should do, as suggested in previous post.
However, if you just want to center the content, there is a better way of doing so. Assuming you use xhtml strict DOCTYPE. set the margin:0,auto property and required width in px to the body tag. The content gets center aligned to the page.
1
votes
... seems CSS help to put div on center ...
<style>
.monitor {
position:fixed;/* ... absolute possible if on :root */
top:0;bottom:0;right:0;left:0;
visibility:hidden;
}
.wrapper {
width:200px;/* this is size range */
height:100px;
position:absolute;
left:50%;top:50%;
visibility:hidden;
}
.content {
position:absolute;
width: 100%;height:100%;
left:-50%;top:-50%;
visibility:visible;
}
</style>
<div class="monitor">
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="content">
... so you hav div 200px*100px on center ...
</div>
</div>
</div>
1
votes
0
votes
Flex
In case that you want to display in your <div> some kind of popUp message on screen center - then you don't need to read size of <div> but you can use flex
.box {
width: 50px;
height: 20px;
background: red;
}
.container {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
height: 100vh;
width: 100vw;
position: fixed; /* remove this in case there is no content under div (and remember to set body margins to 0)*/
}<div class="container">
<div class="box">My div</div>
</div>0
votes
I created a utility function for this, with high flexibility:
export type Size = {width: number, height: number};
export enum GetSize_Method {
/** Includes: content, padding. Excludes: border, margin, scroll-bar (if it has one), "position:absolute" descendants. */
ClientSize = "ClientSize",
/** Includes: content, padding, border, margin, scroll-bar (if it has one). Excludes: "position:absolute" descendants. */
OffsetSize = "OffsetSize",
/** Includes: content, padding, border, margin, scroll-bar (if it has one), "position:absolute" descendants. Excludes: none. */
ScrollSize = "ScrollSize",
/** Same as ScrollSize, except that it's calculated after the element's css transforms are applied. */
BoundingClientRect = "BoundingClientRect",
/** Lets you specify the exact list of components you want to include in the size calculation. */
Custom = "Custom",
}
export type SizeComp = "content" | "padding" | "border" | "margin" | "scrollBar" | "posAbsDescendants";
export function GetSize(el: HTMLElement, method = GetSize_Method.ClientSize, custom_sizeComps?: SizeComp[]) {
let size: Size;
if (method == GetSize_Method.ClientSize) {
size = {width: el.clientWidth, height: el.clientHeight};
} else if (method == GetSize_Method.OffsetSize) {
size = {width: el.offsetWidth, height: el.offsetHeight};
} else if (method == GetSize_Method.ScrollSize) {
size = {width: el.scrollWidth, height: el.scrollHeight};
} else if (method == GetSize_Method.BoundingClientRect) {
const rect = el.getBoundingClientRect();
size = {width: rect.width, height: rect.height};
} else if (method == GetSize_Method.Custom) {
const style = window.getComputedStyle(el, null);
const styleProp = (name: string)=>parseFloat(style.getPropertyValue(name));
const padding = {w: styleProp("padding-left") + styleProp("padding-right"), h: styleProp("padding-top") + styleProp("padding-bottom")};
const base = {w: el.clientWidth - padding.w, h: el.clientHeight - padding.h};
const border = {w: styleProp("border-left") + styleProp("border-right"), h: styleProp("border-top") + styleProp("border-bottom")};
const margin = {w: styleProp("margin-left") + styleProp("margin-right"), h: styleProp("margin-top") + styleProp("margin-bottom")};
const scrollBar = {w: (el.offsetWidth - el.clientWidth) - border.w - margin.w, h: (el.offsetHeight - el.clientHeight) - border.h - margin.h};
const posAbsDescendants = {w: el.scrollWidth - el.offsetWidth, h: el.scrollHeight - el.offsetHeight};
const sc = (name: SizeComp, valIfEnabled: number)=>custom_sizeComps.includes(name) ? valIfEnabled : 0;
size = {
width: sc("content", base.w) + sc("padding", padding.w) + sc("border", border.w)
+ sc("margin", margin.w) + sc("scrollBar", scrollBar.w) + sc("posAbsDescendants", posAbsDescendants.w),
height: sc("content", base.h) + sc("padding", padding.h) + sc("border", border.h)
+ sc("margin", margin.h) + sc("scrollBar", scrollBar.h) + sc("posAbsDescendants", posAbsDescendants.h),
};
}
return size;
}
Usage:
const el = document.querySelector(".my-element");
console.log("Size:", GetSize(el, "ClientSize"));
console.log("Size:", GetSize(el, "Custom", ["content", "padding", "border"]));
-1
votes
-3
votes
Here is the code for WKWebView what determines a height of specific Dom element (doesn't work properly for whole page)
let html = "<body><span id=\"spanEl\" style=\"font-family: '\(taskFont.fontName)'; font-size: \(taskFont.pointSize - 4.0)pt; color: rgb(\(red), \(blue), \(green))\">\(textValue)</span></body>"
webView.navigationDelegate = self
webView.loadHTMLString(taskHTML, baseURL: nil)
func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, didFinish navigation: WKNavigation!) {
webView.evaluateJavaScript("document.getElementById(\"spanEl\").getBoundingClientRect().height;") { [weak self] (response, error) in
if let nValue = response as? NSNumber {
}
}
}
