Javascript retrieve element by it's properties

Question

Every HTML element has offset values. Can I return an element that has, for example, offsetLeft > 10?

Have never heard of this feature, therefore the question.

I'm aware that this can be done with loops, but those are slow. Had an idea about XPath, but cannot find anything related to properties within reference.

Thanks in advance!

P.S. No need for outdated browser compatibility- HTML5'ish can do.

Answer 1

As far as I'm aware, there is no way to do this that does not involve looping of some form. You could do it in standard JS with something along these lines:

var elems = document.getElementsByTagName("*"),
    myElems = [];
for(var i = 0; i < elems.length; i++) {
   if(elems[i].offsetLeft > 10) myElems.push(elems[i]);
}

Or, if you're using jQuery you can do it with a little less code (but it's probably even slower!):

var myElems = $("*").filter(function() {
    return $(this).offset().left > 10;
});

If you think about it, you want to select all of the elements in a document with a certain property value. That's always going to involve a loop at some point, whether you write it yourself or not, as every element has to be checked.