Convert css width string to regular number

Question

While trying to compute the width of an hidden element I found that jquery.width() returns 0 for that elements' width.

I found out that using jquery.css('width') would return the correct width by using the declared style width (even if that value is different from the initial stylesheet). The problem is that the css('width') method returns a string, generally in a "100px" fashion. My question resolves into: how to retrieve the number from the "100px" string? Is there an easy way?

Answer 1

If it always returns in px format, "100px", "50px" etc (i.e. not "em" or percent), you could just...

var width = parseInt($("#myelem").css("width"));

Although deep down I'm thinking that something isn't right if $("#myelem").width() isn't working.

Note on hidden elements.

If you are adding jQuery to progressively enhance you page, the element you are calculating should be visible when the page first loads. So you should get the width before you initially hide the element. By doing this, $("#myelem").width() will work.

var myWidth = 0;

$(document).ready( function () {
    myWidth = $("#myelem").width();
    $("#myelem").hide();
});

Answer 2

Oh, I came up with:
new Number($elem.css('width').slice(0, -2));
//to extract the 'px' and return a regular number

Now I only hope that jquery allways returns the same string fashion: "100px"

Answer 3

I would stick to .width() because it actually gets the computed width instead of css width. Instead of hiding it with .hide() (display: none) you could hide it with .css('visible', 'hidden') then .width() should work.

from my comment If you don't want to change your .hide()´s then you could apply visible: hidden and thereafter .show() and then measure the height. After you have measured it, reverse that. Objects still affects the page layout when they are hidden by visible: hidden - beware of that.

To avoid tags which mess with the layout, you could set the position to absolute, move it to the body tag and then measure.