How do I check if an element is hidden in jQuery?

James W.

The Problem

You want to target elements on your HTML using jQuery, but you’re not sure how to target elements based on criteria like state.

Say you’d like to target some buttons on your page – not all the buttons, just the ones that are hidden from the user. This could be useful to reveal all the hidden buttons on a page to a user.

Is it possible to only target particular elements on a page based on their state? How do you check the state of an element?

The Solution

jQuery uses selectors to find HTML elements. These selectors can access elements based on factors like type, state, id, class, and more.

Check Element State

To check the state of an element, use the is() method. This method returns true if an element matches the state provided, and false otherwise.

The code below checks if an element is visible, and creates an alert stating whether the element is visible or hidden:

if ($(element).is(':visible')) {
  alert('The element is visible');
} else {
  alert('The element is hidden');
}

Match Elements by State

To match elements on a page by a particular state, use the state as a selector. The following code matches all the elements that are hidden:

$('element:hidden');