Element.scrollWidth

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

This property will round the value to an integer. If you need a fractional value, use element.getBoundingClientRect().

Syntax

var xScrollWidth = element.scrollWidth;

xScrollWidth is the width of the content of element in pixels.

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Example</title>
    <style>
        div {
            overflow: hidden;
            white-space: nowrap;
            text-overflow: ellipsis;
        }

        #aDiv {
            width: 100px;
        }

        button {
            margin-bottom: 2em;
        }
    </style>
</head>

<body>
    <div id="aDiv">
        FooBar-FooBar-FooBar-FooBar
    </div>
    <button id="aButton">
        Check for overflow
    </button>

    <div id="anotherDiv">
        FooBar-FooBar-FooBar-FooBar
    </div>
    <button id="anotherButton">
        Check for overflow
    </button>
</body>
<script>
    var buttonOne = document.getElementById('aButton'),
    buttonTwo = document.getElementById('anotherButton'),
    divOne = document.getElementById('aDiv'),
    divTwo = document.getElementById('anotherDiv');

    //check to determine if an overflow is happening
    function isOverflowing(element) {
        return (element.scrollWidth > element.offsetWidth);
    }

    function alertOverflow(element) {
        if (isOverflowing(element)) {
            alert('Contents are overflowing the container.');
        } else {
            alert('No overflows!');
        }
    }

    buttonOne.addEventListener('click', function() {
        alertOverflow(divOne);
    });

    buttonTwo.addEventListener('click', function() {
        alertOverflow(divTwo);
    });
</script>
</html>

Result

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
CSS Object Model (CSSOM) View Module
The definition of 'Element.scrollWidth' in that specification.		 Working Draft Initial definition

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also