Question: I need to read CSS settings for the div's width and height etc in jQuery to arrange the divs (hundreds of them) in proper position in the page.

I know it is possible to read an existing div's actual size/position. But my requirement is to get the info before the div even exists. Anybody? Thanks!

Sorry, I didn't make it clear enough. Here is my situation:

I have a big parent div, which is going to hold multiple rows and columns of small divs. 

The parent div is like 1000 x 1000 px. The small divs like 15 x 10 but it is configed in CSS, and its real value I don't know.

I need to calculate how many row and columns to array the matrix of divs. So that I can loop through to arrange them in the parent div. 

Hope this is a better description.

Answer: 
Have a look at the compatibility page for [DOM CSS](http://quirksmode.org/dom/w3c_css.html). You should be able to access the rules of a stylesheet before any divs are created on the page, and without creating "dummy" divs. For example, 

```
var height = document.styleSheets[0].cssRules[0].style.height;

```

That would show you the height value of the first rule in the first stylesheet.
Like this?

```
var myDiv = $("<div></div>").css({properties});

$("body").append(myDiv);

```