Total width of element (including padding and border) in jQuery

Anyone else stumbling upon this answer should note that jQuery now (>=1.3) has outerHeight/outerWidth functions to retrieve the width including padding/borders, e.g.

$(elem).outerWidth(); // Returns the width + padding + borders

To include the margin as well, simply pass true:

$(elem).outerWidth( true ); // Returns the width + padding + borders + margins

looks like outerWidth is broken in the latest version of jquery.

The discrepancy happens when

the outer div is floated, the inner div has the width set (smaller than the outer div) the inner div has style="margin:auto"

[Update]

The original answer was written prior to jQuery 1.3, and the functions that existed at the time where not adequate by themselves to calculate the whole width.

Now, as J-P correctly states, jQuery has the functions outerWidth and outerHeight which include the border and padding by default, and also the margin if the first argument of the function is true

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[Original answer]

The width method no longer requires the dimensions plugin, because it has been added to the jQuery Core

What you need to do is get the padding, margin and border width-values of that particular div and add them to the result of the width method

Something like this:

var theDiv = $("#theDiv");
var totalWidth = theDiv.width();
totalWidth += parseInt(theDiv.css("padding-left"), 10) + parseInt(theDiv.css("padding-right"), 10); //Total Padding Width
totalWidth += parseInt(theDiv.css("margin-left"), 10) + parseInt(theDiv.css("margin-right"), 10); //Total Margin Width
totalWidth += parseInt(theDiv.css("borderLeftWidth"), 10) + parseInt(theDiv.css("borderRightWidth"), 10); //Total Border Width

Split into multiple lines to make it more readable

That way you will always get the correct computed value, even if you change the padding or margin values from the css