I use jQuery. I’m trying to find a way to get the current width

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Asked: May 13, 20262026-05-13T20:27:48+00:00 2026-05-13T20:27:48+00:00

I use jQuery. I’m trying to find a way to get the current width

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I use jQuery. I’m trying to find a way to get the current width and height of a DIV element, even if they’re set to “auto”. I’ve found many ways to do this, but no method returns the same width in IE. It is important that this method is cross-browser, as it will break the layout of the page if different numbers are returned in different browsers.

.width() and .height() do not work because in IE, padding is subtracted (e.g. width() returns 25 where width is 30 and padding is 5).

.outerWidth() and .outerHeight() are not consistent either. While they work IE (believe it or not) in FF, the padding is added again to the full width (e.g. outerWidth() returns 110 in FF where width is 100px and padding is 10px).

Is there any way out of this mess without writing complex browser checks? Thanks!

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1 Answer

Editorial Team · Answer 1 · 2026-05-13T20:27:48+00:00

Editorial Team

2026-05-13T20:27:48+00:00Added an answer on May 13, 2026 at 8:27 pm

It sounds to me that you need to add a DOCTYPE to your page to force IE into “standards compliant” rather than “quirks” mode. See Quirks mode and strict mode.

Also see width():

How the width is computed