Element: scrollWidth property
The Element.scrollWidth
read-only property is a
measurement of the width of an element's content, including content not visible on the
screen due to overflow.
The scrollWidth
value is equal to the minimum width the element would
require in order to fit all the content in the viewport without using a horizontal
scrollbar. The width is measured in the same way as clientWidth
:
it includes the element's padding, but not its border, margin or
vertical scrollbar (if present). It can also include the width of pseudo-elements such
as ::before
or ::after
. If the element's content can fit
without a need for horizontal scrollbar, its scrollWidth
is equal to
clientWidth
Note:
This property will round the value to an integer. If you need a fractional value,
use element.getBoundingClientRect()
.
Value
An integer.
Examples
Detecting overflowing content
In this example, we use the scrollWidth
property to check if the content of an element is overflowing its boundaries. We have two div
elements, the first with a width of 100px
, and the second without a fixed width. Their content is exactly the same, and we display a message about whether each one is overflowing its container.
HTML
<div id="div1">FooBar-FooBar-FooBar-FooBar</div>
<button id="button1">Check for overflow</button>
<pre id="log1"></pre>
<div id="div2">FooBar-FooBar-FooBar-FooBar</div>
<button id="button2">Check for overflow</button>
<pre id="log2"></pre>
CSS
div {
padding: 0.15em;
overflow: hidden;
white-space: nowrap;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
}
button {
margin: 0.15em 0 0.5em 0;
}
pre {
margin: 0.5em 0;
}
#div1 {
width: 100px;
}
#log1 {
margin-bottom: 2em;
}
JavaScript
const button1 = document.getElementById("button1");
const button2 = document.getElementById("button2");
const div1 = document.getElementById("div1");
const div2 = document.getElementById("div2");
const log1 = document.getElementById("log1");
const log2 = document.getElementById("log2");
// Check if the scrollWidth is bigger than the clientWidth or not
function isOverflowing(element) {
return element.scrollWidth > element.clientWidth;
}
function checkOverflow(element, log) {
if (isOverflowing(element)) {
log.innerText = `Content is overflowing, scrollWidth is ${element.scrollWidth}px`;
} else {
log.innerText = `No overflows, scrollWidth is ${element.scrollWidth}px`;
}
}
button1.addEventListener("click", () => {
checkOverflow(div1, log1);
});
button2.addEventListener("click", () => {
checkOverflow(div2, log2);
});
Result
Click the buttons to check if the content is overflowing the containers.
Specifications
Specification |
---|
CSSOM View Module # dom-element-scrollwidth |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser