How to scroll to specific item using jQuery?

Question

I have a big table with vertical scroll bar. I would like to scroll to a specific line in this table using jQuery/Javascript.

Are there built-in methods to do this?

Here is a little example to play with.

div {
    width: 100px;
    height: 70px;
    border: 1px solid blue;
    overflow: auto;
}

<div>
    <table id="my_table">
        <tr id='row_1'><td>1</td></tr>
        <tr id='row_2'><td>2</td></tr>
        <tr id='row_3'><td>3</td></tr>
        <tr id='row_4'><td>4</td></tr>
        <tr id='row_5'><td>5</td></tr>
        <tr id='row_6'><td>6</td></tr>
        <tr id='row_7'><td>7</td></tr>
        <tr id='row_8'><td>8</td></tr>
        <tr id='row_9'><td>9</td></tr>
    </table>
</div>

Answer 1

Contrary to what most people here are suggesting, I'd recommend you do use a plugin if you want to animate the move. Just animating scrollTop is not enough for a smooth user experience. See my answer here for the reasoning.

I have tried a number of plugins over the years, but eventually written one myself. You might want to give it a spin: jQuery.scrollable. Using that, the scroll action becomes

$container.scrollTo( targetPosition );

But that's not all. We need to fix the target position, too. The calculation you see in other answers,

$target.offset().top - $container.offset().top + $container.scrollTop()

mostly works but is not entirely correct. It doesn't handle the border of the scroll container properly. The target element is scrolled upwards too far, by the size of the border. Here is a demo.

Hence, a better way to calculate the target position is

var target = $target[0], 
    container = $container[0];

targetPosition = $container.scrollTop() + target.getBoundingClientRect().top - container.getBoundingClientRect().top - container.clientTop;

Again, have a look at the demo to see it in action.

For a function which returns the target position and works for both window and non-window scroll containers, feel free to use this gist. The comments in there explain how the position is calculated.

In the beginning, I have said it would be best to use a plugin for animated scrolling. You don't need a plugin, however, if you want to jump to the target without a transition. See the answer by @James for that, but make sure you calculate the target position correctly if there is a border around the container.

Answer 2

I did a combination of what others have posted. Its simple and smooth

 $('#myButton').click(function(){
        $('html, body').animate({
            scrollTop: $('#scroll-to-this-element').position().top },
            1000
        );
    });

Answer 3

I agree with Kevin and others, using a plugin for this is pointless.

window.scrollTo(0, $("#element").offset().top);

Answer 4

For what it's worth, this is how I managed to achieve such behavior for a general element which can be inside a DIV with scrolling (without knowing the container)

It creates a fake input of the height of the target element, and then puts a focus to it, and the browser will take care about the rest no matter how deep within the scrollable hierarchy you are. Works like a charm.

var $scrollTo = $('#someId'),
inputElem = $('<input type="text"></input>');

$scrollTo.prepend(inputElem);
inputElem.css({
  position: 'absolute',
  width: '1px',
  height: $scrollTo.height()
});
inputElem.focus();
inputElem.remove();

Answer 5

I realise this doesn't answer scrolling in a container but people are finding it useful so:

$('html,body').animate({scrollTop: some_element.offset().top});

We select both html and body because the document scroller could be on either and it is hard to determine which. For modern browsers you can get away with $(document.body).

Or, to go to the top of the page:

$('html,body').animate({scrollTop: 0});

Or without animation:

$(window).scrollTop(some_element.offset().top);

OR...

window.scrollTo(0, some_element.offset().top); // native equivalent (x, y)

Answer 6

You can use scrollIntoView() method in javascript. just give id.scrollIntoView();

For example

row_5.scrollIntoView();