D3.js: How to get the computed width and height for an arbitrary element?

For SVG elements

Using something like selection.node().getBBox() you get values like

{
    height: 5, 
    width: 5, 
    y: 50, 
    x: 20
} 

For HTML elements

Use selection.node().getBoundingClientRect()


Once I faced with the issue when I did not know which the element currently stored in my variable (svg or html) but I needed to get it width and height. I created this function and want to share it:

function computeDimensions(selection) {
  var dimensions = null;
  var node = selection.node();

  if (node instanceof SVGGraphicsElement) { // check if node is svg element
    dimensions = node.getBBox();
  } else { // else is html element
    dimensions = node.getBoundingClientRect();
  }
  console.log(dimensions);
  return dimensions;
}

Little demo in the hidden snippet below. We handle click on the blue div and on the red svg circle with the same function.

var svg = d3.select('svg')
  .attr('width', 50)
  .attr('height', 50);

function computeDimensions(selection) {
    var dimensions = null;
  var node = selection.node();

  if (node instanceof SVGElement) {
    dimensions = node.getBBox();
  } else {
    dimensions = node.getBoundingClientRect();
  }
  console.clear();
  console.log(dimensions);
  return dimensions;
}

var circle = svg
    .append("circle")
    .attr("r", 20)
    .attr("cx", 30)
    .attr("cy", 30)
    .attr("fill", "red")
    .on("click", function() { computeDimensions(circle); });
    
var div = d3.selectAll("div").on("click", function() { computeDimensions(div) });
* {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  border: 0;
}

body {
  background: #ffd;
}

.div {
  display: inline-block;
  background-color: blue;
  margin-right: 30px;
  width: 30px;
  height: 30px;
}
<h3>
  Click on blue div block or svg circle
</h3>
<svg></svg>
<div class="div"></div>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/d3/4.11.0/d3.min.js"></script>

.getBoundingClientRect() returns the size of an element and its position relative to the viewport.We can easily get following

  • left, right
  • top, bottom
  • height, width

Example :

var element = d3.select('.elementClassName').node();
element.getBoundingClientRect().width;