Question

I need to be able to adjust a width of a class based on a width of a parent. Currently .myClass has a width assigned in CSS. Would something like this work:

.myClass {
    color: #000;
    width:100px;
}

$(".myClass").width($(".myClass").parent().width());

This will be applied to a <DIV> and the parent could be a <TD> or another <DIV>.

Answer 1

What you have should work but I would probably change it to this:

$(".myClass").css("width",$(".myClass").parent().css("width"));

You might be able to use this instead of the second $(".myClass"), but you’d have to test that.

Keep in mind that it’s not changing the class itself. It’s changing the width of any element that uses that class.

UPDATE:

If you are going to be doing any sort of calculations with the parent width then you should probably stick with your original method. I like css when you are applying styles “as is” but that is a personal preference. If you are doing any kind of modifications to the parent value then width is probably better.

From the width documentation:

The .width() method is recommended
when an element’s width needs to be
used in a mathematical calculation.