[javascript] Retrieve the position (X,Y) of an HTML element relative to the browser window

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.

This question is related to javascript html css dom position

The answer is


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');

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;

_x000D_
_x000D_
var els = document.getElementsByTagName("div");_x000D_
var docEl = document.documentElement;_x000D_
_x000D_
for (var i = 0; i < els.length; i++) {_x000D_
_x000D_
  var rect = els[i].getBoundingClientRect();_x000D_
_x000D_
  var rectTop = rect.top + window.pageYOffset - docEl.clientTop;_x000D_
  var rectLeft = rect.left + window.pageXOffset - docEl.clientLeft;_x000D_
_x000D_
  els[i].innerHTML = "<b>" + rectLeft + ", " + rectTop + "</b>";_x000D_
}
_x000D_
div {_x000D_
  width: 100px;_x000D_
  height: 100px;_x000D_
  background-color: red;_x000D_
  border: 1px solid black;_x000D_
}_x000D_
#rel {_x000D_
  position: relative;_x000D_
  left: 10px;_x000D_
  top: 10px;_x000D_
}_x000D_
#abs {_x000D_
  position: absolute;_x000D_
  top: 250px;_x000D_
  left: 250px;_x000D_
}
_x000D_
<div id="rel"></div>_x000D_
<div id="abs"></div>_x000D_
<div></div>
_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_


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.


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;

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

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>');

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.


You might be better served by using a JavaScript framework, that has functions to return such information (and so much more!) in a browser-independant fashion. Here are a few:

With these frameworks, you could do something like: $('id-of-img').top to get the y-pixel coordinate of the image.


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.


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;

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


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;

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);

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; 

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


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];
};


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.


/**
 *
 * @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.


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.


If you are using jQuery, this could be a simple solution:

<script>
  var el = $("#element");
  var position = el.position();
  console.log( "left: " + position.left + ", top: " + position.top );
</script>

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.


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.


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.


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 };
}

see http://jsbin.com/xuvovalifo/edit?html,js,output


Get position of div in respect to left and Top

  var elm = $('#div_id');  //get the div
  var posY_top = elm.offset().top;  //get the position from top
  var posX_left = elm.offset().left; //get the position from left 

This is easy as two lines in JS :

var elem = document.getElementById("id");    
alert(elem.getBoundingClientRect());

/**
 *
 * @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.


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


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;

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 };
}

see http://jsbin.com/xuvovalifo/edit?html,js,output


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 };
}

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

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


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()};
};

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.


This is easy as two lines in JS :

var elem = document.getElementById("id");    
alert(elem.getBoundingClientRect());

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/


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).


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.


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).


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.


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;

_x000D_
_x000D_
var els = document.getElementsByTagName("div");_x000D_
var docEl = document.documentElement;_x000D_
_x000D_
for (var i = 0; i < els.length; i++) {_x000D_
_x000D_
  var rect = els[i].getBoundingClientRect();_x000D_
_x000D_
  var rectTop = rect.top + window.pageYOffset - docEl.clientTop;_x000D_
  var rectLeft = rect.left + window.pageXOffset - docEl.clientLeft;_x000D_
_x000D_
  els[i].innerHTML = "<b>" + rectLeft + ", " + rectTop + "</b>";_x000D_
}
_x000D_
div {_x000D_
  width: 100px;_x000D_
  height: 100px;_x000D_
  background-color: red;_x000D_
  border: 1px solid black;_x000D_
}_x000D_
#rel {_x000D_
  position: relative;_x000D_
  left: 10px;_x000D_
  top: 10px;_x000D_
}_x000D_
#abs {_x000D_
  position: absolute;_x000D_
  top: 250px;_x000D_
  left: 250px;_x000D_
}
_x000D_
<div id="rel"></div>_x000D_
<div id="abs"></div>_x000D_
<div></div>
_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_


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>');

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.


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; 

Get position of div in respect to left and Top

  var elm = $('#div_id');  //get the div
  var posY_top = elm.offset().top;  //get the position from top
  var posX_left = elm.offset().left; //get the position from left 

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()};
};

You might be better served by using a JavaScript framework, that has functions to return such information (and so much more!) in a browser-independant fashion. Here are a few:

With these frameworks, you could do something like: $('id-of-img').top to get the y-pixel coordinate of the image.


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/


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.


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 };
}

You might be better served by using a JavaScript framework, that has functions to return such information (and so much more!) in a browser-independant fashion. Here are a few:

With these frameworks, you could do something like: $('id-of-img').top to get the y-pixel coordinate of the image.


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).


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.


If you are using jQuery, this could be a simple solution:

<script>
  var el = $("#element");
  var position = el.position();
  console.log( "left: " + position.left + ", top: " + position.top );
</script>

You might be better served by using a JavaScript framework, that has functions to return such information (and so much more!) in a browser-independant fashion. Here are a few:

With these frameworks, you could do something like: $('id-of-img').top to get the y-pixel coordinate of the image.


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).


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];
};


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; 

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');

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);

Examples related to javascript

need to add a class to an element How to make a variable accessible outside a function? Hide Signs that Meteor.js was Used How to create a showdown.js markdown extension Please help me convert this script to a simple image slider Highlight Anchor Links when user manually scrolls? Summing radio input values How to execute an action before close metro app WinJS javascript, for loop defines a dynamic variable name Getting all files in directory with ajax

Examples related to html

Embed ruby within URL : Middleman Blog Please help me convert this script to a simple image slider Generating a list of pages (not posts) without the index file Why there is this "clear" class before footer? Is it possible to change the content HTML5 alert messages? Getting all files in directory with ajax DevTools failed to load SourceMap: Could not load content for chrome-extension How to set width of mat-table column in angular? How to open a link in new tab using angular? ERROR Error: Uncaught (in promise), Cannot match any routes. URL Segment

Examples related to css

need to add a class to an element Using Lato fonts in my css (@font-face) Please help me convert this script to a simple image slider Why there is this "clear" class before footer? How to set width of mat-table column in angular? Center content vertically on Vuetify bootstrap 4 file input doesn't show the file name Bootstrap 4: responsive sidebar menu to top navbar Stylesheet not loaded because of MIME-type Force flex item to span full row width

Examples related to dom

How do you set the document title in React? How to find if element with specific id exists or not Cannot read property 'style' of undefined -- Uncaught Type Error adding text to an existing text element in javascript via DOM Violation Long running JavaScript task took xx ms How to get `DOM Element` in Angular 2? Angular2, what is the correct way to disable an anchor element? React.js: How to append a component on click? Detect click outside React component DOM element to corresponding vue.js component

Examples related to position

How does the "position: sticky;" property work? React Native absolute positioning horizontal centre RecyclerView - Get view at particular position RecyclerView - How to smooth scroll to top of item on a certain position? How to find index of STRING array in Java from a given value? Insert node at a certain position in a linked list C++ How to position the Button exactly in CSS Float a DIV on top of another DIV Iframe positioning css - position div to bottom of containing div