Detect if a page has a vertical scrollbar?

Question

$(document).ready(function() {
    // Check if body height is higher than window height :)
    if ($("body").height() > $(window).height()) {
        alert("Vertical Scrollbar! D:");
    }

    // Check if body width is higher than window width :)
    if ($("body").width() > $(window).width()) {
        alert("Horizontal Scrollbar! D:<");
    }
});

try this:

var hasVScroll = document.body.scrollHeight > document.body.clientHeight;

This will only tell you if the vertical scrollHeight is bigger than the height of the viewable content, however. The hasVScroll variable will contain true or false.

If you need to do a more thorough check, add the following to the code above:

// Get the computed style of the body element
var cStyle = document.body.currentStyle||window.getComputedStyle(document.body, "");

// Check the overflow and overflowY properties for "auto" and "visible" values
hasVScroll = cStyle.overflow == "visible" 
             || cStyle.overflowY == "visible"
             || (hasVScroll && cStyle.overflow == "auto")
             || (hasVScroll && cStyle.overflowY == "auto");

I tried the previous answer and doesn't seem to be working the $("body").height() does not necessarily represent the whole html height.

I have corrected the solution as follows:

// Check if body height is higher than window height :) 
if ($(document).height() > $(window).height()) { 
    alert("Vertical Scrollbar! D:"); 
} 

// Check if body width is higher than window width :) 
if ($(document).width() > $(window).width()) { 
    alert("Horizontal Scrollbar! D:<"); 
} 

Let's bring this question back from the dead ;) There is a reason Google doesn't give you a simple solution. Special cases and browser quirks affect the calculation, and it is not as trivial as it seems to be.

Unfortunately, there are problems with the solutions outlined here so far. I don't mean to disparage them at all - they are great starting points and touch on all the key properties needed for a more robust approach. But I wouldn't recommend copying and pasting the code from any of the other answers because

• they don't capture the effect of positioned content in a way that is reliable cross-browser. The answers which are based on body size miss this entirely (the body is not the offset parent of such content unless it is positioned itself). And those answers checking $( document ).width() and .height() fall prey to jQuery's buggy detection of document size.
• Relying on window.innerWidth, if the browser supports it, makes your code fail to detect scroll bars in mobile browsers, where the width of the scroll bar is generally 0. They are just shown temporarily as an overlay and don't take up space in the document. Zooming on mobile also becomes a problem that way (long story).
• The detection can be thrown off when people explicitly set the overflow of both the html and body element to non-default values (what happens then is a little involved - see this description).
• In most answers, body padding, borders or margins are not detected and distort the results.

I have spent more time than I would have imagined on a finding a solution that "just works" (cough). The algorithm I have come up with is now part of a plugin, jQuery.isInView, which exposes a .hasScrollbar method. Have a look at the source if you wish.

In a scenario where you are in full control of the page and don't have to deal with unknown CSS, using a plugin may be overkill - after all, you know which edge cases apply, and which don't. However, if you need reliable results in an unknown environment, then I don't think the solutions outlined here will be enough. You are better off using a well-tested plugin - mine or anybody elses.