The HTMLElement.offsetParent read-only property returns a reference to the element which is the closest (nearest in the containment hierarchy) positioned ancestor element. If there is no positioned ancestor element, the nearest ancestor td, th, table will be returned, or the body if there are no ancestor table elements either.
NOTE:
offsetParent returns null in the following situations:
- The element or its parent element has the
displayproperty set tonone. - The element has the
positionproperty set tofixed(firefox returns<body>). - The element is
<body>or<html>.
offsetParent is useful because offsetTop and offsetLeft are relative to its padding edge.
Syntax
parentObj = element.offsetParent;
- parentObj is an object reference to the element in which the current element is offset.
Specification
| Specification | Status | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| CSS Object Model (CSSOM) View Module The definition of 'offsetParent' in that specification. |
Working Draft |
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table on 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.
| Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
offsetParent | Chrome Full support 1 | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support 1 | IE Full support 8 | Opera Full support 8 | Safari Full support 3 | WebView Android Full support 1 | Chrome Android Full support 18 | Firefox Android Full support 4 | Opera Android Full support 10.1 | Safari iOS Full support 1 | Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0 |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support