Kevin Powell - Community•4w ago

How to Set Width of a New Container Element to Match an Existing Element's Width in JavaScript?

I’m working on a project where I need to dynamically create a new container element and append an existing element into it. My goal is to ensure that the new container element has the same width as the existing element, regardless of how that width is defined (e.g., auto, max-content, inline styles, or specific pixel values). here's what I have done done so far

    <div class="container" id="container-element">
      <h1>hello!</h1>
    </div>

    <script>
      const containerElement = document.getElementById('container-element');

      // Get the computed width of the container element. 
      // Even if no explicit width is set (e.g., using `auto`), 
      // this will return a pixel value (like `256px`), 
      // which may not reflect the original width setting (e.g., `auto`, `max-content`, etc.).
      const containerElementWidth = window
        .getComputedStyle(containerElement)
        .getPropertyValue('width'); // not working, it's giving me a pixel value like `256px`, expected value to be `auto`

      const newContainerElement = document.createElement('div');
      const newContainerElementStyle = {
        width: containerElementWidth,
        /*
          other code here
        */
      };
      Object.assign(newContainerElement.style, newContainerElementStyle);
      newContainerElement.append(containerElement);

      // this function is just going to append the new container element directly to the position of the previous container element
      appendNewContainer(newContainerElement);
    </script>

    <div class="container" id="container-element">
      <h1>hello!</h1>
    </div>

    <script>
      const containerElement = document.getElementById('container-element');

      // Get the computed width of the container element. 
      // Even if no explicit width is set (e.g., using `auto`), 
      // this will return a pixel value (like `256px`), 
      // which may not reflect the original width setting (e.g., `auto`, `max-content`, etc.).
      const containerElementWidth = window
        .getComputedStyle(containerElement)
        .getPropertyValue('width'); // not working, it's giving me a pixel value like `256px`, expected value to be `auto`

      const newContainerElement = document.createElement('div');
      const newContainerElementStyle = {
        width: containerElementWidth,
        /*
          other code here
        */
      };
      Object.assign(newContainerElement.style, newContainerElementStyle);
      newContainerElement.append(containerElement);

      // this function is just going to append the new container element directly to the position of the previous container element
      appendNewContainer(newContainerElement);
    </script>

How can I obtain the width of containerElement regardless of how it’s styled (e.g., using max-content, auto, or explicit pixel values)?

26 Replies

snxxwyy•4w ago

element.offsetWidth I think

FrostOP•4w ago

The HTMLElement.offsetWidth read-only property returns the layout width of an element as an integer.

The HTMLElement.offsetWidth read-only property returns the layout width of an element as an integer.

I also want to get a value of auto if there's no specific width set to an element, and also for max-content, min-content, fit-content etc..

snxxwyy•4w ago

Have a look into this

snxxwyy•4w ago

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/getComputedStyle#

MDN Web Docs

Window: getComputedStyle() method - Web APIs | MDN

The Window.getComputedStyle() method returns an object containing the values of all CSS properties of an element, after applying active stylesheets and resolving any basic computation those values may contain.

TOMUTO 🍅•4w ago

offsetWidth should return u the width even if it is set to auto lemme check again

snxxwyy•4w ago

I believe it just gives the width of the element As in, even if it’s auto, the intrinsic size is still going to be a certain amount of px wide So it’ll return that. I don’t think it looks at keywords

TOMUTO 🍅•4w ago

TOMUTO 🍅•4w ago

i mean it does return u the height in px the height of the div is set to auto so what is the issue with offsetWidth or height

snxxwyy•4w ago

I think if there’s a set width they want that number And if not they want auto or fit content etc Like the actual value of the variable to be ‘auto’ But only they can confirm

TOMUTO 🍅•4w ago

MarkBoots•4w ago

i don't think he wants the calculated size. he wants the property value as declared in css or else default. don't think it is possible without reading the whole style sheet and trying to find it

TOMUTO 🍅•4w ago

yep

snxxwyy•4w ago

I recommended get computed style I think that should do it right?

TOMUTO 🍅•4w ago

nah i think that returns u the value similar to offsetWidth or height

MarkBoots•4w ago

computed style will return the exact size of the rendered element. so no,

snxxwyy•4w ago

Ah I see then

TOMUTO 🍅•4w ago

u do need to read the stylesheet ig just use a variable css variable

TOMUTO 🍅•4w ago

MarkBoots•4w ago

I think this would work with reading the style sheet (it does need the exact selector though) --edit: optimized

function getSelectorPropertyValue(selector, property) {
  for (const sheet of document.styleSheets) {
    for (const rule of sheet.cssRules || sheet.rules) {
      if (rule instanceof CSSStyleRule && rule.selectorText === selector) {
        // If selector is found, return property value if it exists, otherwise 'auto'
        return rule.style.getPropertyValue(property) || 'auto';
      }
    }
  }
  return null; // Selector not found in any stylesheet
}

// Example usage:
const width = getSelectorPropertyValue("#container-element", "width");
console.log(width);

function getSelectorPropertyValue(selector, property) {
  for (const sheet of document.styleSheets) {
    for (const rule of sheet.cssRules || sheet.rules) {
      if (rule instanceof CSSStyleRule && rule.selectorText === selector) {
        // If selector is found, return property value if it exists, otherwise 'auto'
        return rule.style.getPropertyValue(property) || 'auto';
      }
    }
  }
  return null; // Selector not found in any stylesheet
}

// Example usage:
const width = getSelectorPropertyValue("#container-element", "width");
console.log(width);

had some help from the interwebs to put it together

FrostOP•4w ago

Thank you for your feedback really appreciate it, but, there are several problems with this function. First, there are specificity issues it might return the first match, which may not be the most specific style applied to the element. Also, if an element has inline styles, the function does not acccount for those, as well if the application has a lot of stylesheets, iterating through all of them may not be efficient. I also want the selector matching to be more configurable, as some of the users utilize combinators or attribute selectors for their elements. im trying to use this in a javascript library that im writing so i want to find a soluion that is more flexible, if there is no other way im just gonna set a default width to the new containerElement or just allow them to set a specific width to it

newContainerElement(element,{ width:'auto' } /* if not provided use the default value*/)

newContainerElement(element,{ width:'auto' } /* if not provided use the default value*/)

MarkBoots•4w ago

Yea, it clearly isn't the best approach, you've mentioned the catches. i wonder how the devtools show the properties/values on element inspection. There must be something we're missing

FrostOP•4w ago

if only there is similar method to getComputedStyle, but instead of returning the computed style value of an element, it returns the value that was set for the property, If no value was set, it would return the default value of that property. For example:

getActualStyleValue(element).getPropertyValue('width');

getActualStyleValue(element).getPropertyValue('width');

im still searching for a way similar to this but still no luck

MarkBoots•4w ago

Still trying it with my approach. First I check for inline styles, then the matched selector, and if not found the computed value (you can change to 'auto') For the matched selector, specificity is a hassle, i tried to calculated the selectors, but for complexer ones, it's really hard (lot of regex) here a pen you can play with https://codepen.io/MarkBoots/pen/rNXJVow?editors=1111 I know this is not usable for production, but it's a nice puzzle

FrostOP•4w ago

thanks again, i'll play around with this

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How to Set Width of a New Container Element to Match an Existing Element's Width in JavaScript?