Locating DOM element by absolute coordinates

Question

Is there a simple way to locate all DOM elements that \"cover\" (that is, have within its boundaries) a pixel with X/Y coordinate pair?

Answer 1

This does the job (fiddle):

$(document).click(function(e) {
    var hitElements = getHitElements(e);
});

var getHitElements = function(e) {
    var x = e.pageX;
    var y = e.pageY;
    var hitElements = [];

    $(':visible').each(function() {
        var offset = $(this).offset();
        if (offset.left < x && (offset.left + $(this).outerWidth() > x) && (offset.top < y && (offset.top + $(this).outerHeight() > y))) {
            hitElements.push($(this));
        }
    });

    return hitElements;
}​

When using :visible, you should be aware of this:

Elements with visibility: hidden or opacity: 0 are considered visible, since they still consume space in the layout. During animations that hide an element, the element is considered to be visible until the end of the animation. During animations to show an element, the element is considered to be visible at the start at the animation.

So, based on your need, you would want to exclude the visibility:hidden and opacity:0 elements.