jQuery get mouse position within an element

Question

I was hoping to craft a control where a user could click inside a div, then drag the mouse, then let up on the mouse in order to indicate how long they want something to be.

Answer 1

@AbdulRahim answer is almost correct. But I suggest the function below as substitute (for futher reference):

function getXY(evt, element) {
                var rect = element.getBoundingClientRect();
                var scrollTop = document.documentElement.scrollTop?
                                document.documentElement.scrollTop:document.body.scrollTop;
                var scrollLeft = document.documentElement.scrollLeft?                   
                                document.documentElement.scrollLeft:document.body.scrollLeft;
                var elementLeft = rect.left+scrollLeft;  
                var elementTop = rect.top+scrollTop;

                x = evt.pageX-elementLeft;
                y = evt.pageY-elementTop;

                return {x:x, y:y};
            }




            $('#main-canvas').mousemove(function(e){
                var m=getXY(e, this);
                console.log(m.x, m.y);
            });

Answer 2

To get the position of click relative to current clicked element
Use this code

$("#specialElement").click(function(e){
    var x = e.pageX - this.offsetLeft;
    var y = e.pageY - this.offsetTop;
});