The Element.getBoundingClientRect()
method returns a DOMRect
object providing information about the size of an element and its position relative to the viewport.
Syntax
domRect = element.getBoundingClientRect();
Value
The returned value is a DOMRect
object which is the smallest rectangle which contains the entire element, including its padding and border-width. The left
, top
, right
, bottom
, x
, y
, width
, and height
properties describe the position and size of the overall rectangle in pixels. Properties other than width
and height
are relative to the top-left of the viewport.
[[File:../../../../../../media.prod.mdn.mozit.cloud/attachments/2020/03/25/17155/8308ffe3cff7b09b5f86e49b2018cf96/element-box-diagram.png]]
The width
and height
properties of the DOMRect
object returned by the method include the padding
and border-width
, not only the content width/height. In the standard box model, this would be equal to the width
or height
property of the element + padding
+ border-width
. But if box-sizing: border-box
is set for the element this would be directly equal to its width
or height
.
The returned value can be thought of as the union of the rectangles returned by getClientRects()
for the element, i.e., the CSS border-boxes associated with the element.
Empty border-boxes are completely ignored. If all the element's border-boxes are empty, then a rectangle is returned with a width
and height
of zero and where the top
and left
are the top-left of the border-box for the first CSS box (in content order) for the element.
The amount of scrolling that has been done of the viewport area (or any other scrollable element) is taken into account when computing the bounding rectangle. This means that the rectangle's boundary edges (top
, right
, bottom
, left
) change their values every time the scrolling position changes (because their values are relative to the viewport and not absolute).
If you need the bounding rectangle relative to the top-left corner of the document, just add the current scrolling position to the top
and left
properties (these can be obtained using window.scrollX
and window.scrollY
) to get a bounding rectangle which is independent from the current scrolling position.
Cross-browser fallback
Scripts requiring high cross-browser compatibility can use window.pageXOffset
and window.pageYOffset
instead of window.scrollX
and window.scrollY.
Scripts without access to these properties can use code like this:
// For scrollX
(((t = document.documentElement) || (t = document.body.parentNode))
&& typeof t.scrollLeft == 'number' ? t : document.body).scrollLeft
// For scrollY
(((t = document.documentElement) || (t = document.body.parentNode))
&& typeof t.scrollTop == 'number' ? t : document.body).scrollTop
Examples
This simple example retrieves the DOMRect
object representing the bounding client rect of a simple <div>
element, and prints out its properties below it.
<div></div>
div {
width: 400px;
height: 200px;
padding: 20px;
margin: 50px auto;
background: purple;
}
let elem = document.querySelector('div');
let rect = elem.getBoundingClientRect();
for (var key in rect) {
if(typeof rect[key] !== 'function') {
let para = document.createElement('p');
para.textContent = `${ key } : ${ rect[key] }`;
document.body.appendChild(para);
}
}
Notice how the width
/height
are equal to its width
/height
+ padding
.
Also note how the values of x
/left
, y
/top
, right
, and bottom
are equal to the absolute distance from the relevant edge of the viewport to that side of the element, in each case.
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
CSS Object Model (CSSOM) View ModuleThe definition of 'Element.getBoundingClientRect()' in that specification. | Working Draft | Initial definition |
Notes
The returned DOMRect
object can be modified in modern browsers. This was not true with older versions which effectively returned DOMRectReadOnly
. With IE and Edge, not being able to add missing properties to their returned ClientRect
, object prevents backfilling x
and y
.
Due to compatibility problems (see below), it is safest to rely on only properties left
, top
, right
, and bottom
.
Properties in the returned DOMRect
object are not own properties. While the in
operator and for...in
will find returned properties, other APIs such as Object.keys()
will fail. Moreover, and unexpectedly, the ES2015 and newer features such as Object.assign()
and object rest/spread will fail to copy returned properties.
rect = elt.getBoundingClientRect()
// The result in emptyObj is {}
emptyObj = Object.assign({}, rect)
emptyObj = { ...rect }
{width, ...emptyObj} = rect
DOMRect
properties top
, left
, right
, and bottom
are computed using the values of the object's other properties.
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
Update compatibility data on GitHub
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
getBoundingClientRect
|
Chrome
Full support 2 |
Edge
Full support 12 |
Firefox
Full support 3 |
IE
Full support 4 |
Opera
Full support 9.5 |
Safari
Full support 6 |
WebView Android
Full support ≤37 |
Chrome Android
Full support 18 |
Firefox Android
Full support 4 |
Opera Android
Full support 10.1 |
Safari iOS Full support 4 Full support 4 Notes' Safari for iOS will modify the effective viewport based on the user zoom. This results in incorrect values whenever the user has zoomed. |
Samsung Internet Android
Full support 1.0 |
height
|
Chrome
Full support Yes |
Edge
Full support 12 |
Firefox
Full support 3.5 |
IE
Full support 9 |
Opera
Full support Yes |
Safari
Full support Yes |
WebView Android
Full support Yes |
Chrome Android
Full support Yes |
Firefox Android
? |
Opera Android
Full support Yes |
Safari iOS
Full support Yes |
Samsung Internet Android
Full support Yes |
width
|
Chrome
Full support Yes |
Edge
Full support 12 |
Firefox
Full support 3.5 |
IE
Full support 9 |
Opera
Full support Yes |
Safari
Full support Yes |
WebView Android
Full support Yes |
Chrome Android
Full support Yes |
Firefox Android
? |
Opera Android
Full support Yes |
Safari iOS
Full support Yes |
Samsung Internet Android
Full support Yes |
x
|
Chrome
Full support Yes |
Edge
Full support 79 |
Firefox
Full support Yes |
IE No support No No support No Notes' Returns a |
Opera
Full support Yes |
Safari
Full support 11 |
WebView Android
Full support Yes |
Chrome Android
Full support Yes |
Firefox Android
? |
Opera Android
Full support Yes |
Safari iOS
Full support 11 |
Samsung Internet Android
Full support Yes |
y
|
Chrome
Full support Yes |
Edge
Full support 79 |
Firefox
Full support Yes |
IE No support No No support No Notes' Returns a |
Opera
Full support Yes |
Safari
Full support 11 |
WebView Android
Full support Yes |
Chrome Android
Full support Yes |
Firefox Android
? |
Opera Android
Full support Yes |
Safari iOS
Full support 11 |
Samsung Internet Android
Full support Yes |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- No support
- No support
- Compatibility unknown
- Compatibility unknown
- See implementation notes.'
- See implementation notes.
See also
getClientRects()
- MSDN:
getBoundingClientRect
- MSDN:
ClientRect
, an earlier version ofDOMRect
Element.getBoundingClientRect() by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.