Element offset is always 0

Question

I am using a table with a link column when the link is clicked i would like to get the offset of the row. I tried using element.offsetTop and $(element).offset().top and both return 0 the parent elements also return 0 as their offset top.

I have tried

function getTop(element)
{
   var top = findPosY(element);
   console.log(top); 
}

function findPosY(obj) {
   var curtop = 0;
   if (obj.offsetParent) {
      while (obj.offsetParent) {
         curtop += obj.offsetTop
         obj = obj.offsetParent;
      }
   }
   else if (obj.y)
     curtop += obj.y;
   return curtop;
}

but this still return 0 for the y pos.

Answer 1

The following function walks up the DOM tree, calculating the positions on its way. It returns an object with .x and .y as properties, so getPosition(element).y will give you the number of pixels from the top of the page.

   /**
   * returns the absolute position of an element regardless of position/float issues
   * @param {HTMLElement} el - element to return position for 
   * @returns {object} { x: num, y: num }
   */
  function getPosition(el) {

    var x = 0,
        y = 0;

    while (el != null && (el.tagName || '').toLowerCase() != 'html') {
        x += el.offsetLeft || 0; 
        y += el.offsetTop || 0;
        el = el.parentElement;
    }

    return { x: parseInt(x, 10), y: parseInt(y, 10) };
  }

Hope this helps ;)