Description: Get the closest ancestor element that is positioned.
.offsetParent()
version added: 1.2.6
Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the .offsetParent() method allows us to search through the ancestors of these elements in the DOM tree and construct a new jQuery object wrapped around the closest positioned ancestor. An element is said to be positioned if it has a CSS position attribute of relative, absolute, or fixed. This information is useful for calculating offsets for performing animations and placing objects on the page.
Consider a page with a basic nested list on it, with a positioned element:
<ul class="level-1">
<li class="item-i">I</li>
<li class="item-ii" style="position: relative;">II
<ul class="level-2">
<li class="item-a">A</li>
<li class="item-b">B
<ul class="level-3">
<li class="item-1">1</li>
<li class="item-2">2</li>
<li class="item-3">3</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="item-c">C</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="item-iii">III</li>
</ul>
If we begin at item A, we can find its positioned ancestor:
$('li.item-a').offsetParent().css('background-color', 'red');
This will change the color of list item II, which is positioned.
Examples
Find the offsetParent of item "A."Full source:
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> $(document).ready(function(){ $('li.item-a').offsetParent().css('background-color', 'red'); }); </script> </head> <body> <ul class="level-1"> <li class="item-i">I</li> <li class="item-ii" style="position: relative;">II <ul class="level-2"> <li class="item-a">A</li> <li class="item-b">B <ul class="level-3"> <li class="item-1">1</li> <li class="item-2">2</li> <li class="item-3">3</li> </ul> </li> <li class="item-c">C</li> </ul> </li> <li class="item-iii">III</li> </ul> </body> </html>
Was this information helpful?
