jQuery `.is(":visible")` not working in Chrome

if ($("#makespan").is(":visible") == true) { 
    var make = $("#make").val(); 
}
else {
    var make = $("#othermake").val(); 
}

Make:<span id=makespan><select id=make></select><span id=othermakebutton class=txtbutton>Other?</span></span><span id=othermakespan style="display: none;"><input type=text name=othermake id=othermake>&nbsp;-&nbsp;<span id=othermakecancel class=txtbutton>Cancel</span></span>

The above code runs smooth in Firefox, but doesn't seem to work in Chrome. In Chrome it shows .is(":visible") = false even when it is true.

I am using following jQuery version: jquery-1.4.3.min.js

jsFiddle Link: http://jsfiddle.net/WJU2r/4/

It seems jQuery's :visible selector does not work for some inline elements in Chrome. The solution is to add a display style, like "block" or "inline-block" to make it work.

Also note that jQuery has a somewhat different definition of what is visible than many developers:

> Elements are considered visible if they consume space in the document.
> Visible elements have a width or height that is greater than zero.

In other words, an element must have a non-zero width and height to consume space and be visible.

> > Elements with visibility: hidden or opacity: 0 are considered visible, > since they still consume space in the layout. >

On the other hand, even if its visibility is set to hidden or the opacity is zero, it's still :visible to jQuery as it consumes space, which can be confusing when the CSS explicitly says its visibility is hidden.

> Elements that are not in a document are considered hidden; jQuery does > not have a way to know if they will be visible when appended to a > document since it depends on the applicable styles. > > All option elements are considered hidden, regardless of their > selected state. > > During animations that hide an element, the element is considered > visible until the end of the animation. During animations to show an > element, the element is considered visible at the start at the > animation.

The easy way to look at it, is that if you can see the element on the screen, even if you can't see its content, it's transparent etc., it's visible, i.e. it takes up space.

I cleaned up your markup a little and added a display style (i.e. setting the elements display to "block" etc), and this works for me:

FIDDLE

Official API reference for :visible

---

As of jQuery 3, the definition of :visible has changed slightly

> jQuery 3 slightly modifies the meaning of :visible (and therefore of > :hidden).
> Starting with this version, elements will be considered > :visible if they have any layout boxes, including those of zero width > and/or height. For example, br elements and inline elements with no > content will be selected by the :visible selector.

I don't know why your code doesn't work on chrome, but I suggest you use some workarounds :

$el.is(':visible') === $el.is(':not(:hidden)');

or

$el.is(':visible') === !$el.is(':hidden');  

If you are certain that jQuery gives you some bad results in chrome, you can just rely on the css rule checking :

if($el.css('display') !== 'none') {
    // i'm visible
}

Plus, you might want to use the latest jQuery because it might have bugs from older version fixed.

I assume it has something to do with a quirk in our HTML because other places on the same page work just fine.

The only way I was able to solve this problem was to do:

if($('#element_id').css('display') == 'none')
{
   // Take element is hidden action
}
else
{
   // Take element is visible action
}

There is a weird case where if the element is set to display: inline the jQuery check for visibility fails.

Example:

CSS

#myspan {display: inline;}

jQuery

$('#myspan').show(); // Our element is `inline` instead of `block`
$('#myspan').is(":visible"); // This is false

To fix it you can hide the element in jQuery and than show/hide or toggle() should work fine.

$('#myspan').hide()
$('#otherElement').on('click', function() {
    $('#myspan').toggle();
});

Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox...

Cross Browser function "isVisible()"

//check if exist and is visible
function isVisible(id) {
    var element = $('#' + id);
    if (element.length > 0 && element.css('visibility') !== 'hidden' && element.css('display') !== 'none') {
        return true;
    } else {
        return false;
    }
}

Full example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
        <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            //check if exist and is visible
            function isVisible(id) {
                var element = $('#' + id);
                if (element.length > 0 && element.css('visibility') !== 'hidden' && element.css('display') !== 'none') {
                    return true;
                } else {
                    return false;
                }
            }
            
            function check(id) {
                if (isVisible(id)) {
                    alert('visible: true');
                } else {
                    alert('visible: false');
                }
                return false;
            }
        </script>

        <style type="text/css">
            #fullname{
                display: none;
            }
            #vote{
                visibility: hidden;
            }
        </style>
        <title>Full example: isVisible function</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div id="hello-world">
            Hello World!
        </div>
        <div id="fullname">
            Fernando Mosquera Catarecha
        </div>
        <div id="vote">
            rate it!
        </div>
        <a href="#" onclick="check('hello-world');">Check isVisible('hello-world')</a><br /><br />
        <a href="#" onclick="check('fullname');">Check isVisible('fullname')</a><br /><br />
        <a href="#" onclick="check('vote');">Check isVisible('vote')</a>
    </body>
</html>

Regards,

Fernando

If you read the jquery docs, there are numerous reasons for something to not be considered visible/hidden:

They have a CSS display value of none.

They are form elements with type="hidden".

Their width and height are explicitly set to 0.

An ancestor element is hidden, so the element is not shown on the page.

http://api.jquery.com/visible-selector/

Here's a small jsfiddle example with one visible and one hidden element:

http://jsfiddle.net/tNjLb/

A cross browser/version solution to determine whether an element is visible, is to add/remove a css class to the element on show/hide. The default(visible) state of the element could be for example like this:

<span id="span1" class="visible">Span text</span>

Then on hide, remove the class:

$("#span1").removeClass("visible").hide();

On show, add it again:

$("#span1").addClass("visible").show();

Then to determine whether the element is visible, use this:

if ($("#span1").hasClass("visible")) { // do something }

This also solves the performance implications, which may occur on heavy usage of the ":visible" selector, which are pointed in jQuery's documentation:

> Using this selector heavily can have performance implications, as it may force the browser to re-render the page before it can determine visibility. Tracking the visibility of elements via other methods, using a class for example, can provide better performance.

Official jQuery API Documentation for ":visible" selector

Generally i live this situation when parent of my object is hidden. for example when the html is like this:

    <div class="div-parent" style="display:none">
        <div class="div-child" style="display:block">
        </div>
    </div>

if you ask if child is visible like:

    $(".div-child").is(":visible");

it will return false because its parent is not visible so that div wont be visible, also.

I added next style on the parent and .is(":visible") worked.

> display: inline-block;

I need to use visibility:hidden insted of display:none because visibility takes events, while display does not.

So I do .attr('visibility') === "visible"

If an item is child of an item that is hidden is(":visible") will return true, which is incorrect.

I just fixed this by added "display:inherit" to the child item. This will fixed it for me:

<div class="parent">
   <div class="child">
   </div>
<div>

and the CSS:

.parent{
   display: hidden;
}
.child{
   display: inherit;
}

Now the item can be effectively switched on and off by changing the visibility of the parent, and $(element).is(":visible") will return the visibility of the parent item

This is the piece of code from jquery.js which executes when is(":visible") is called :

if (jQuery.expr && jQuery.expr.filters){

    jQuery.expr.filters.hidden = function( elem ) {
        return ( elem.offsetWidth === 0 && elem.offsetHeight === 0 ) || (!jQuery.support.reliableHiddenOffsets && ((elem.style && elem.style.display) || jQuery.css( elem, "display" )) === "none");
 	};

    jQuery.expr.filters.visible = function( elem ) {
        return !jQuery.expr.filters.hidden( elem );
    };
}

As you can see, it uses more than just the CSS display property. It also depends on the width and height of content of the element. Hence, make sure the element has some width and height. And for doing this, you may need to set the display property to "inline-block" or "block"