How do I get the real .height() of a overflow: hid

Question

I have a question regarding how to get a div height. I'm aware of .height() and innerHeight(), but none of them does the job for me in this case. The thing is that in this case I have a div that is overflown width a overflow: scroll and the div has a fixed height.

If I use .height() or innerHeight(), both of them gives me the height of the visible area, but if I want the overflown taken in to account, how do I go about?

Answer 1

Use the .scrollHeight property of the DOM node: $('#your_div')[0].scrollHeight

Answer 2

For more information about .scrollHeight property refer to the docs:

The Element.scrollHeight read-only attribute is a measurement of the height of an element's content, including content not visible on the screen due to overflow. The scrollHeight value is equal to the minimum clientHeight the element would require in order to fit all the content in the viewpoint without using a vertical scrollbar. It includes the element padding but not its margin.

Answer 3

Other possibility would be place the html in a non overflow:hidden element placed 'out' of screen, like a position absolute top and left lesse then 5000px, then read this elements height. Its ugly, but work well.

Answer 4

Another simple solution (not very elegant, but not too ugly also) is to place a inner div / span then get his height ($(this).find('span).height()).

Here is an example of using this strategy:

$(".more").click(function(){
if($(this).parent().find('.showMore').length) {
$(this).parent().find('.showMore').removeClass('showMore').css('max-height','90px');
$(this).parent().find('.more').removeClass('less').text('More');
} else {
$(this).parent().find('.text').addClass('showMore').css('max-height',$(this).parent().find('span').height());
$(this).parent().find('.more').addClass('less').text('Less');
}
});

* {transition: all 0.5s;}
.text {position:relative;width:400px;max-height:90px;overflow:hidden;}
.showMore {}
.text::after {
  content: "";
    position: absolute; bottom: 0; left: 0;
        box-shadow: inset 0 -26px 22px -17px #fff;
    height: 39px;
  z-index:99999;
  width:100%;
  opacity:1;
}
.showMore::after {opacity:0;}
.more {border-top:1px solid gray;width:400px;color:blue;cursor:pointer;}
.more.less {border-color:#fff;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div>
<div class="text">
<span>
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
</span></div>
<div class="more">More</div>
</div>

(This specific example is using this trick to animate the max-height and avoiding animation delay when collapsing (when using high number for the max-height property).