Scrolling to a element inside a scrollable DIV with pure Javascript

Question

You need to read the offsetTop property of the div you need to scroll to and then set that offset to the scrollTop property of the container div. Bind this function the event you want to :

function scrollToElementD(){
    var topPos = document.getElementById('inner-element').offsetTop;
    document.getElementById('container').scrollTop = topPos-10;
}

div {
    height: 200px;
    width: 100px;
    border: 1px solid black;
    overflow: auto;
}

p {
    height: 80px;
    background: blue;
}
#inner-element {
    background: red;
}

<div id="container"><p>A</p><p>B</p><p>C</p><p id="inner-element">D</p><p>E</p><p>F</p></div>
<button onclick="scrollToElementD()">SCROLL TO D</button>

function scrollToElementD(){
  var topPos = document.getElementById('inner-element').offsetTop;
  document.getElementById('container').scrollTop = topPos-10;
}

Fiddle : http://jsfiddle.net/p3kar5bb/322/ (courtesy @rofrischmann)

Just improved it by setting a smooth auto scrolling inside a list contained in a div

https://codepen.io/rebosante/pen/eENYBv

var topPos = elem.offsetTop

document.getElementById('mybutton').onclick = function () {
   console.log('click')
  scrollTo(document.getElementById('container'), topPos-10, 600);   
}

function scrollTo(element, to, duration) {
    var start = element.scrollTop,
        change = to - start,
        currentTime = 0,
        increment = 20;

    var animateScroll = function(){        
        currentTime += increment;
        var val = Math.easeInOutQuad(currentTime, start, change, duration);
        element.scrollTop = val;
        if(currentTime < duration) {
            setTimeout(animateScroll, increment);
        }
    };
    animateScroll();
}

//t = current time
//b = start value
//c = change in value
//d = duration
Math.easeInOutQuad = function (t, b, c, d) {
    t /= d/2;
    if (t < 1) return c/2*t*t + b;
    t--;
    return -c/2 * (t*(t-2) - 1) + b;
};

I guess it may help someone :)

Here's a simple pure JavaScript solution that works for a target Number (value for scrollTop), target DOM element, or some special String cases:

/**
 * target - target to scroll to (DOM element, scrollTop Number, 'top', or 'bottom'
 * containerEl - DOM element for the container with scrollbars
 */
var scrollToTarget = function(target, containerEl) {
    // Moved up here for readability:
    var isElement = target && target.nodeType === 1,
        isNumber = Object.prototype.toString.call(target) === '[object Number]';

    if (isElement) {
        containerEl.scrollTop = target.offsetTop;
    } else if (isNumber) {
        containerEl.scrollTop = target;
    } else if (target === 'bottom') {
        containerEl.scrollTop = containerEl.scrollHeight - containerEl.offsetHeight;
    } else if (target === 'top') {
        containerEl.scrollTop = 0;
    }
};

And here are some examples of usage:

// Scroll to the top
var scrollableDiv = document.getElementById('scrollable_div');
scrollToTarget('top', scrollableDiv);

or

// Scroll to 200px from the top
var scrollableDiv = document.getElementById('scrollable_div');
scrollToTarget(200, scrollableDiv);

or

// Scroll to targetElement
var scrollableDiv = document.getElementById('scrollable_div');
var targetElement= document.getElementById('target_element');
scrollToTarget(targetElement, scrollableDiv);