.offsetParent()
Get the closest ancestor element that is positioned.
.offsetParent()🡢 jQuery
Given a jQuery object that represents a set of DOM elements, the .offsetParent() method allows us to search through the ancestors of these elements in the DOM tree and construct a new jQuery object wrapped around the closest positioned ancestor. An element is said to be positioned if it has a CSS position attribute of relative, absolute, or fixed. This information is useful for calculating offsets for performing animations and placing objects on the page.
Consider a page with a basic nested list on it, with a positioned element:
<ul class="level-1">
<li class="item-i">I</li>
<li class="item-ii" style="position: relative">
II
<ul class="level-2">
<li class="item-a">A</li>
<li class="item-b">
B
<ul class="level-3">
<li class="item-1">1</li>
<li class="item-2">2</li>
<li class="item-3">3</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="item-c">C</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="item-iii">III</li>
</ul>
If we begin at item A, we can find its positioned ancestor:
$("li.item-a").offsetParent().css("background-color", "red");
This will change the color of list item II, which is positioned.
Find the offsetParent of item "A."
JS
<ul class="level-1">
<li class="item-i">I</li>
<li class="item-ii" style="position: relative">
II
<ul class="level-2">
<li class="item-a">A</li>
<li class="item-b">
B
<ul class="level-3">
<li class="item-1">1</li>
<li class="item-2">2</li>
<li class="item-3">3</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="item-c">C</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="item-iii">III</li>
</ul>
HTML
$("li.item-a").offsetParent().css("background-color", "red");
DEMO