The HTMLElement.offsetParent read-only property returns a reference to the element which is the closest (nearest in the containment hierarchy) positioned ancestor element.
A positioned ancestor is either:
- an element with a non-static position, or
-
td,th,tablein case the element itself is static positioned.
If there is no positioned ancestor element, the body is returned.
Note: offsetParent returns null in the following situations:
- The element or any ancestor has the
displayproperty set tonone. - The element has the
positionproperty set tofixed(Firefox returns<body>). - The element is
<body>or<html>.
offsetParent is useful because offsetTop and offsetLeft are relative to its padding edge.