I want to know how to get the X and Y position of HTML elements such as img and div in JavaScript relative to the browser window.
1836
votes
i had been using these 7 lines of code which works in all browsers with discrepancies in ie5,6,7(i did not remember having any proboem... may be the doc type) ... quirksmode.org/js/findpos.html and i had been using it a lot for so many years. may be sombody can point the flaws if any.
– Jayapal Chandran
@AnthonyWJones, I suppose you needed the pedantic pleasure, but it is obvious, as it always is when unspecified, that the OP refers to the most general case, or refers to the window coordinates of the browser.
– Motes
@Mote, No, it's not that obvious. Leave inference, subjectivity and false axioms aside. It can be relative to viewport or top of the page (aka document.documentElement).
– Andre Figueiredo
Defaulting to the most general is not inference, it is the logical progression, so that would be relative to the window, or "top of page" might be the term as you put it. In Game Theory, it is codified as a concept called a Schelling point. Be sure to specify when you don't mean the most general case.
– Motes
The point is, the obvious for some is not obvious for others. Even if in theory we know which is the case, due to empirical knowledge, clarity hurts no one here, specially for those who just started programming.
– Andre Figueiredo
28 Answers
2058
votes
The correct approach is to use element.getBoundingClientRect():
var rect = element.getBoundingClientRect();
console.log(rect.top, rect.right, rect.bottom, rect.left);
Internet Explorer has supported this since as long as you are likely to care about and it was finally standardized in CSSOM Views. All other browsers adopted it a long time ago.
Some browsers also return height and width properties, though this is non-standard. If you're worried about older browser compatibility, check this answer's revisions for an optimised degrading implementation.
The values returned by element.getBoundingClientRect() are relative to the viewport. If you need it relative to another element, simply subtract one rectangle from the other:
var bodyRect = document.body.getBoundingClientRect(),
elemRect = element.getBoundingClientRect(),
offset = elemRect.top - bodyRect.top;
alert('Element is ' + offset + ' vertical pixels from <body>');
343
votes
The libraries go to some lengths to get accurate offsets for an element.
here's a simple function that does the job in every circumstances that I've tried.
function getOffset( el ) {
var _x = 0;
var _y = 0;
while( el && !isNaN( el.offsetLeft ) && !isNaN( el.offsetTop ) ) {
_x += el.offsetLeft - el.scrollLeft;
_y += el.offsetTop - el.scrollTop;
el = el.offsetParent;
}
return { top: _y, left: _x };
}
var x = getOffset( document.getElementById('yourElId') ).left;
300
votes
This function returns an element's position relative to the whole document (page):
function getOffset(el) {
const rect = el.getBoundingClientRect();
return {
left: rect.left + window.scrollX,
top: rect.top + window.scrollY
};
}
Using this we can get the X position:
getOffset(element).left
... or the Y position:
getOffset(element).top
TypeScript version:
export type ElementOffset = {
left: number;
top: number
};
/**
* Returns an element's position relative to the whole document (page).
*
* If the element does not exist, returns O/O (top-left window corner).
*
* @example getOffset(document.getElementById('#element'));
*
* @param el
* @see https://stackoverflow.com/a/28222246/2391795
*/
export const getElementOffset = (el: Element | null): ElementOffset => {
const rect = el?.getBoundingClientRect();
return {
left: (rect?.left || 0) + window?.scrollX,
top: (rect?.top || 0) + window?.scrollY,
};
};
export default getElementOffset;
144
votes
If you want it done only in javascript, here are some one liners using getBoundingClientRect()
window.scrollY + document.querySelector('#elementId').getBoundingClientRect().top // Y
window.scrollX + document.querySelector('#elementId').getBoundingClientRect().left // X
The first line will return offsetTop say Y relative to document.
The second line will return offsetLeft say X relative to document.
getBoundingClientRect() is a javascript function that returns the position of the element relative to viewport of window.
52
votes
HTML elements on most browsers will have:-
offsetLeft
offsetTop
These specifiy the position of the element relative its nearest parent that has layout. This parent can often be accessed bif the offsetParent property.
IE and FF3 have
clientLeft
clientTop
These properties are less common, they specify an elements position with its parents client area (padded area is part of the client area but border and margin is not).
37
votes
If page includes - at least- any "DIV", the function given by meouw throws the "Y" value beyond current page limits. In order to find the exact position, you need to handle both offsetParent's and parentNode's.
Try the code given below (it is checked for FF2):
var getAbsPosition = function(el){
var el2 = el;
var curtop = 0;
var curleft = 0;
if (document.getElementById || document.all) {
do {
curleft += el.offsetLeft-el.scrollLeft;
curtop += el.offsetTop-el.scrollTop;
el = el.offsetParent;
el2 = el2.parentNode;
while (el2 != el) {
curleft -= el2.scrollLeft;
curtop -= el2.scrollTop;
el2 = el2.parentNode;
}
} while (el.offsetParent);
} else if (document.layers) {
curtop += el.y;
curleft += el.x;
}
return [curtop, curleft];
};
35
votes
You can add two properties to Element.prototype to get the top/left of any element.
Object.defineProperty( Element.prototype, 'documentOffsetTop', {
get: function () {
return this.offsetTop + ( this.offsetParent ? this.offsetParent.documentOffsetTop : 0 );
}
} );
Object.defineProperty( Element.prototype, 'documentOffsetLeft', {
get: function () {
return this.offsetLeft + ( this.offsetParent ? this.offsetParent.documentOffsetLeft : 0 );
}
} );
This is called like this:
var x = document.getElementById( 'myDiv' ).documentOffsetLeft;
Here's a demo comparing the results to jQuery's offset().top and .left: http://jsfiddle.net/ThinkingStiff/3G7EZ/
25
votes
To retrieve the position relative to the page efficiently, and without using a recursive function: (includes IE also)
var element = document.getElementById('elementId'); //replace elementId with your element's Id.
var rect = element.getBoundingClientRect();
var elementLeft,elementTop; //x and y
var scrollTop = document.documentElement.scrollTop?
document.documentElement.scrollTop:document.body.scrollTop;
var scrollLeft = document.documentElement.scrollLeft?
document.documentElement.scrollLeft:document.body.scrollLeft;
elementTop = rect.top+scrollTop;
elementLeft = rect.left+scrollLeft;
21
votes
How about something like this, by passing ID of the element and it will return the left or top, we can also combine them:
1) find left
function findLeft(element) {
var rec = document.getElementById(element).getBoundingClientRect();
return rec.left + window.scrollX;
} //call it like findLeft('#header');
2) find top
function findTop(element) {
var rec = document.getElementById(element).getBoundingClientRect();
return rec.top + window.scrollY;
} //call it like findTop('#header');
or 3) find left and top together
function findTopLeft(element) {
var rec = document.getElementById(element).getBoundingClientRect();
return {top: rec.top + window.scrollY, left: rec.left + window.scrollX};
} //call it like findTopLeft('#header');
16
votes
jQuery .offset() will get the current coordinates of the first element, or set the coordinates of every element, in the set of matched elements, relative to the document.
15
votes
11
votes
/**
*
* @param {HTMLElement} el
* @return {{top: number, left: number}}
*/
function getDocumentOffsetPosition(el) {
var position = {
top: el.offsetTop,
left: el.offsetLeft
};
if (el.offsetParent) {
var parentPosition = getDocumentOffsetPosition(el.offsetParent);
position.top += parentPosition.top;
position.left += parentPosition.left;
}
return position;
}
Thank ThinkingStiff for the answer, this is only another version.
10
votes
I've taken @meouw's answer, added in the clientLeft that allows for the border, and then created three versions:
getAbsoluteOffsetFromBody - similar to @meouw's, this gets the absolute position relative to the body or html element of the document (depending on quirks mode)
getAbsoluteOffsetFromGivenElement - returns the absolute position relative to the given element (relativeEl). Note that the given element must contain the element el, or this will behave the same as getAbsoluteOffsetFromBody. This is useful if you have two elements contained within another (known) element (optionally several nodes up the node tree) and want to make them the same position.
getAbsoluteOffsetFromRelative - returns the absolute position relative to the first parent element with position: relative. This is similar to getAbsoluteOffsetFromGivenElement, for the same reason but will only go as far as the first matching element.
getAbsoluteOffsetFromBody = function( el )
{ // finds the offset of el from the body or html element
var _x = 0;
var _y = 0;
while( el && !isNaN( el.offsetLeft ) && !isNaN( el.offsetTop ) )
{
_x += el.offsetLeft - el.scrollLeft + el.clientLeft;
_y += el.offsetTop - el.scrollTop + el.clientTop;
el = el.offsetParent;
}
return { top: _y, left: _x };
}
getAbsoluteOffsetFromGivenElement = function( el, relativeEl )
{ // finds the offset of el from relativeEl
var _x = 0;
var _y = 0;
while( el && el != relativeEl && !isNaN( el.offsetLeft ) && !isNaN( el.offsetTop ) )
{
_x += el.offsetLeft - el.scrollLeft + el.clientLeft;
_y += el.offsetTop - el.scrollTop + el.clientTop;
el = el.offsetParent;
}
return { top: _y, left: _x };
}
getAbsoluteOffsetFromRelative = function( el )
{ // finds the offset of el from the first parent with position: relative
var _x = 0;
var _y = 0;
while( el && !isNaN( el.offsetLeft ) && !isNaN( el.offsetTop ) )
{
_x += el.offsetLeft - el.scrollLeft + el.clientLeft;
_y += el.offsetTop - el.scrollTop + el.clientTop;
el = el.offsetParent;
if (el != null)
{
if (getComputedStyle !== 'undefined')
valString = getComputedStyle(el, null).getPropertyValue('position');
else
valString = el.currentStyle['position'];
if (valString === "relative")
el = null;
}
}
return { top: _y, left: _x };
}
If you are still having problems, particularly relating to scrolling, you could try looking at http://www.greywyvern.com/?post=331 - I noticed at least one piece of questionable code in getStyle which should be fine assuming browsers behave, but haven't tested the rest at all.
8
votes
if using jQuery, the dimensions plugin is excellent and allows you specify exactly what you want.
e.g.
Relative position, absolute position, absolute position without padding, with padding...
It goes on, let's just say there is a lot you can do with it.
Plus the bonus of using jQuery is it's lightweight file size and easy use, you won't go back to JavaScript without it afterwards.
8
votes
8
votes
Difference between small and little
function getPosition( el ) {
var x = 0;
var y = 0;
while( el && !isNaN( el.offsetLeft ) && !isNaN( el.offsetTop ) ) {
x += el.offsetLeft - el.scrollLeft;
y += el.offsetTop - el.scrollTop;
el = el.offsetParent;
}
return { top: y, left: x };
}
Look a example coordinates: http://javascript.info/tutorial/coordinates
7
votes
The cleanest approach I have found is a simplified version of the technique used by jQuery's offset. Similar to some of the other answers it starts with getBoundingClientRect; it then uses the window and the documentElement to adjust for scroll position as well as things like the margin on the body (often the default).
var rect = el.getBoundingClientRect();
var docEl = document.documentElement;
var rectTop = rect.top + window.pageYOffset - docEl.clientTop;
var rectLeft = rect.left + window.pageXOffset - docEl.clientLeft;
var els = document.getElementsByTagName("div");
var docEl = document.documentElement;
for (var i = 0; i < els.length; i++) {
var rect = els[i].getBoundingClientRect();
var rectTop = rect.top + window.pageYOffset - docEl.clientTop;
var rectLeft = rect.left + window.pageXOffset - docEl.clientLeft;
els[i].innerHTML = "<b>" + rectLeft + ", " + rectTop + "</b>";
}div {
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
background-color: red;
border: 1px solid black;
}
#rel {
position: relative;
left: 10px;
top: 10px;
}
#abs {
position: absolute;
top: 250px;
left: 250px;
}<div id="rel"></div>
<div id="abs"></div>
<div></div>6
votes
This is the best code I've managed to create (works in iframes as well, unlike jQuery's offset()). Seems webkit has a bit of a different behavior.
Based on meouw's comment:
function getOffset( el ) {
var _x = 0;
var _y = 0;
while( el && !isNaN( el.offsetLeft ) && !isNaN( el.offsetTop ) ) {
_x += el.offsetLeft - el.scrollLeft;
_y += el.offsetTop - el.scrollTop;
// chrome/safari
if ($.browser.webkit) {
el = el.parentNode;
} else {
// firefox/IE
el = el.offsetParent;
}
}
return { top: _y, left: _x };
}
6
votes
While this is very likely to be lost at the bottom of so many answers, the top solutions here were not working for me.
As far as I could tell neither would any of the other answers have helped.
Situation:
In an HTML5 page I had a menu that was a nav element inside a header (not THE header but a header in another element).
I wanted the navigation to stick to the top once a user scrolled to it, but previous to this the header was absolute positioned (so I could have it overlay something else slightly).
The solutions above never triggered a change because .offsetTop was not going to change as this was an absolute positioned element. Additionally the .scrollTop property was simply the top of the top most element... that is to say 0 and always would be 0.
Any tests I performed utilizing these two (and same with getBoundingClientRect results) would not tell me if the top of the navigation bar ever scrolled to the top of the viewable page (again, as reported in console, they simply stayed the same numbers while scrolling occurred).
Solution
The solution for me was utilizing
window.visualViewport.pageTop
The value of the pageTop property reflects the viewable section of the screen, therefore allowing me to track where an element is in reference to the boundaries of the viewable area.
Probably unnecessary to say, anytime I am dealing with scrolling I expect to use this solution to programatically respond to movement of elements being scrolled.
Hope it helps someone else.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This appears to work in Chrome and Opera currently & definitely not in Firefox (6-2018)... until Firefox supports visualViewport I recommend NOT using this method, (and I hope they do soon... it makes a lot more sense than the rest).
UPDATE:
Just a note regarding this solution.
While I still find what I discovered to be very valuable for situations in which "...programmatically respond to movement of elements being scrolled." is applicable. The better solution for the problem that I had was to use CSS to set position: sticky on the element. Using sticky you can have an element stay at the top without using javascript (NOTE: there are times this will not work as effectively as changing the element to fixed but for most uses the sticky approach will likely be superior)
UPDATE01:
So I realized that for a different page I had a requirement where I needed to detect the position of an element in a mildly complex scrolling setup (parallax plus elements that scroll past as part of a message).
I realized in that scenario that the following provided the value I utilized to determine when to do something:
let bodyElement = document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];
let elementToTrack = bodyElement.querySelector('.trackme');
trackedObjPos = elementToTrack.getBoundingClientRect().top;
if(trackedObjPos > 264)
{
bodyElement.style.cssText = '';
}
Hope this answer is more widely useful now.
6
votes
To get the total offset of an element, you could recursively sum up all parent offsets:
function getParentOffsets(el): number {
if (el.offsetParent) {
return el.offsetParent.offsetTop + getParentOffset(el.offsetParent);
} else {
return 0;
}
}
with this utility function the total top offset of a dom element is:
el.offsetTop + getParentOffsets(el);
5
votes
I did it like this so it was cross-compatible with old browsers.
// For really old browser's or incompatible ones
function getOffsetSum(elem) {
var top = 0,
left = 0,
bottom = 0,
right = 0
var width = elem.offsetWidth;
var height = elem.offsetHeight;
while (elem) {
top += elem.offsetTop;
left += elem.offsetLeft;
elem = elem.offsetParent;
}
right = left + width;
bottom = top + height;
return {
top: top,
left: left,
bottom: bottom,
right: right,
}
}
function getOffsetRect(elem) {
var box = elem.getBoundingClientRect();
var body = document.body;
var docElem = document.documentElement;
var scrollTop = window.pageYOffset || docElem.scrollTop || body.scrollTop;
var scrollLeft = window.pageXOffset || docElem.scrollLeft || body.scrollLeft;
var clientTop = docElem.clientTop;
var clientLeft = docElem.clientLeft;
var top = box.top + scrollTop - clientTop;
var left = box.left + scrollLeft - clientLeft;
var bottom = top + (box.bottom - box.top);
var right = left + (box.right - box.left);
return {
top: Math.round(top),
left: Math.round(left),
bottom: Math.round(bottom),
right: Math.round(right),
}
}
function getOffset(elem) {
if (elem) {
if (elem.getBoundingClientRect) {
return getOffsetRect(elem);
} else { // old browser
return getOffsetSum(elem);
}
} else
return null;
}
More about coordinates in JavaScript here: http://javascript.info/tutorial/coordinates
4
votes
HTML program to show (x, y) of an
element by dragging mouse over it you just copied it and use it on your own
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>
position of an element
</title>
<!-- scropt to get position -->
<script type = "text/javascript">
function getPositionXY(element) {
var rect = element.getBoundingClientRect();
document.getElementById('text').innerHTML
= 'X: ' + rect.x + '<br>' + 'Y: ' + rect.y;
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<p>Move the mouse over the text</p>
<div onmouseover = "getPositionXY(this)">
Position:
<p id = 'text'></p>
</div>
</body>
</html> 2
votes
I successfully used Andy E's solution to position a bootstrap 2 modal depending on what link in a table row a user clicks on. The page is a Tapestry 5 page and javascript below is imported in the java page class.
javascript:
function setLinkPosition(clientId){
var bodyRect = document.body.getBoundingClientRect(),
elemRect = clientId.getBoundingClientRect(),
offset = elemRect.top - bodyRect.top;
offset = offset + 20;
$('#serviceLineModal').css("top", offset);
}
My modal code:
<div id="serviceLineModal" class="modal hide fade add-absolute-position" data-backdrop="static"
tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="myModalLabel" aria-hidden="true" style="top:50%;">
<div class="modal-header">
<button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">x</button>
<h3 id="myModalLabel">Modal header</h3>
</div>
<div class="modal-body">
<t:zone t:id="modalZone" id="modalZone">
<p>You selected service line number: ${serviceLineNumberSelected}</p>
</t:zone>
</div>
<div class="modal-footer">
<button class="btn" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">Close</button>
<!-- <button class="btn btn-primary">Save changes</button> -->
</div>
The link in the loop:
<t:loop source="servicesToDisplay" value="service" encoder="encoder">
<tr style="border-right: 1px solid black;">
<td style="white-space:nowrap;" class="add-padding-left-and-right no-border">
<a t:type="eventLink" t:event="serviceLineNumberSelected" t:context="service.serviceLineNumber"
t:zone="pageZone" t:clientId="modalLink${service.serviceLineNumber}"
onmouseover="setLinkPosition(this);">
<i class="icon-chevron-down"></i> <!-- ${service.serviceLineNumber} -->
</a>
</td>
And the java code in the page class:
void onServiceLineNumberSelected(String number){
checkForNullSession();
serviceLineNumberSelected = number;
addOpenServiceLineDialogCommand();
ajaxResponseRenderer.addRender(modalZone);
}
protected void addOpenServiceLineDialogCommand() {
ajaxResponseRenderer.addCallback(new JavaScriptCallback() {
@Override
public void run(JavaScriptSupport javascriptSupport) {
javascriptSupport.addScript("$('#serviceLineModal').modal('show');");
}
});
}
Hope this helps someone, this post helped out.
1
votes
After much research and testing this seems to work
function getPosition(e) {
var isNotFirefox = (navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf('firefox') == -1);
var x = 0, y = 0;
while (e) {
x += e.offsetLeft - e.scrollLeft + (isNotFirefox ? e.clientLeft : 0);
y += e.offsetTop - e.scrollTop + (isNotFirefox ? e.clientTop : 0);
e = e.offsetParent;
}
return { x: x + window.scrollX, y: y + window.scrollY };
}
1
votes
Just thought I'd throw this out there as well.
I haven't been able to test it in older browsers, but it works in the latest of the top 3. :)
Element.prototype.getOffsetTop = function() {
return ( this.parentElement )? this.offsetTop + this.parentElement.getOffsetTop(): this.offsetTop;
};
Element.prototype.getOffsetLeft = function() {
return ( this.parentElement )? this.offsetLeft + this.parentElement.getOffsetLeft(): this.offsetLeft;
};
Element.prototype.getOffset = function() {
return {'left':this.getOffsetLeft(),'top':this.getOffsetTop()};
};
1
votes
0
votes
Since different browsers are rendering border, padding, margin and etc in different way. I wrote a little function to retrieve top and left positions of specific element in every root element that you want in precise dimension:
function getTop(root, offset) {
var rootRect = root.getBoundingClientRect();
var offsetRect = offset.getBoundingClientRect();
return offsetRect.top - rootRect.top;
}
For retrieve left position you must return:
return offsetRect.left - rootRect.left;
