Question

I need to get height of an element that is within a div that is hidden. Right now I show the div, get the height, and hide the parent div. This seems a bit silly. Is there a better way?

I’m using jQuery 1.4.2:

$select.show();
optionHeight = $firstOption.height(); //we can only get height if its visible
$select.hide();

Answer 1

You could do something like this, a bit hacky though, forget position if it’s already absolute:

var previousCss  = $("#myDiv").attr("style");

$("#myDiv").css({
    position:   'absolute', // Optional if #myDiv is already absolute
    visibility: 'hidden',
    display:    'block'
});

optionHeight = $("#myDiv").height();

$("#myDiv").attr("style", previousCss ? previousCss : "");