Have one text element track the position of another text element

I would like to have the red "Aliquam" text inside of the div with class ".absolute" track on top of the exact position of the (blue) "Aliquam" text inside ".aliquam-span", including on browser resize.

I've tried a few different ways to do this but haven't had much luck - hoping that someone here can help.

Nesting the text as a child of the span is not an option, unfortunately.

Thank you!

<!-- begin snippet: js hide: false console: true babel: false -->

<!-- language: lang-js -->

let aliquam = document.querySelector('.aliquam-span')
let aliquamAbsolute = document.querySelector('.red-text')

let aliquamRect = aliquam.getBoundingClientRect()
let aliquamAbsoluteRect = aliquamAbsolute.getBoundingClientRect()

let xOffset = aliquamRect.left - aliquamAbsoluteRect.left
let yOffset = aliquamRect.top - aliquamAbsoluteRect.top

console.log({xOffset})

aliquamAbsolute.style.left = `${xOffset}px`
aliquamAbsolute.style.top = `${yOffset}px`

<!-- language: lang-css -->

.container {
  width: 100%;
  max-width: 60rem;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
}

p {
  font-size: 1.5rem;
}

.wrap {
  position: relative;
}

.absolute {
  position: absolute;
  inset: 0; 
}

.red-text {
  position: relative;
  color: red;
  left: '200px';
}

.aliquam-span {
  color: blue;
}

<!-- language: lang-html -->

<div class="container">
  <div class="wrap">
    <p>Maecenas a finibus sapien. Duis pulvinar ligula vel arcu cursus, in euismod nunc iaculis. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Fusce facilisis quis libero nec bibendum. Donec suscipit eros sit amet ex condimentum ullamcorper. Aliquam dictum, risus id pharetra congue, nisl nisi facilisis enim, sit amet facilisis nunc diam condimentum eros. Aenean euismod turpis id enim commodo sagittis. <span class="aliquam-span">Aliquam</span> eget dolor eget nulla tempus imperdiet. Praesent gravida, nisl quis malesuada faucibus, orci purus ultrices velit, ut porttitor libero ante at nisl. Duis eget convallis risus. Nunc vitae orci non tellus ultricies vestibulum in a augue. Vestibulum hendrerit leo ac nunc rutrum imperdiet. Integer sem tellus, maximus vel interdum ut, accumsan vel orci. Mauris maximus leo vitae felis dapibus euismod. Nulla facilisi. Donec ac ullamcorper justo.</p>
    <div class="absolute">
      <p class="red-text">Aliquam</p>
    </div>
  </div>
    
</div>

<!-- end snippet -->

It works for me, try it:

<!-- begin snippet: js hide: false console: true babel: null -->

<!-- language: lang-js -->

function changePosition () {
   let aliquam = document.querySelector('.aliquam-span');
   let aliquamAbsolute = document.querySelector('.red-text').parentElement;
   let aliquamRect = aliquam.getBoundingClientRect();
        
   aliquamAbsolute.style.top = aliquamRect.top + 'px';
   aliquamAbsolute.style.right = aliquamRect.right + 'px';
   aliquamAbsolute.style.left = aliquamRect.left + 'px';
   aliquamAbsolute.style.bottom = aliquamRect.bottom + 'px';

}
window.onresize = changePosition;
window.onload = changePosition;

<!-- language: lang-css -->

.container {
  width: 100%;
  max-width: 60rem;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
}

p {
  font-size: 1.5rem;
}

.wrap {
  
}

.absolute {
  position: absolute;
  inset: 0; 
}

.red-text {
  position: relative;
  color: red;
  left: '200px';
  margin: 0;
}

.aliquam-span {
  color: blue;
}

<!-- language: lang-html -->

<div class="container">
  <div class="wrap">
    <p>Maecenas a finibus sapien. Duis pulvinar ligula vel arcu cursus, in euismod nunc iaculis. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Fusce facilisis quis libero nec bibendum. Donec suscipit eros sit amet ex condimentum ullamcorper. Aliquam dictum, risus id pharetra congue, nisl nisi facilisis enim, sit amet facilisis nunc diam condimentum eros. Aenean euismod turpis id enim commodo sagittis. <span class="aliquam-span">Aliquam</span> eget dolor eget nulla tempus imperdiet. Praesent gravida, nisl quis malesuada faucibus, orci purus ultrices velit, ut porttitor libero ante at nisl. Duis eget convallis risus. Nunc vitae orci non tellus ultricies vestibulum in a augue. Vestibulum hendrerit leo ac nunc rutrum imperdiet. Integer sem tellus, maximus vel interdum ut, accumsan vel orci. Mauris maximus leo vitae felis dapibus euismod. Nulla facilisi. Donec ac ullamcorper justo.</p>
    <div class="absolute">
      <p class="red-text">Aliquam</p>
    </div>
  </div>
    
</div>

<!-- end snippet -->

You should target the div that is being set as the absolutely positioned one. So select .absolute instead of the .red-text.

<!-- begin snippet: js hide: false console: true babel: false -->

<!-- language: lang-js -->

let aliquam = document.querySelector('.aliquam-span')
let aliquamAbsolute = document.querySelector('.absolute')

let aliquamRect = aliquam.getBoundingClientRect()
let aliquamAbsoluteRect = aliquamAbsolute.getBoundingClientRect()

let xOffset = aliquamRect.left - aliquamAbsoluteRect.left

let yOffset = aliquamRect.top - aliquamAbsoluteRect.top

console.log({xOffset, yOffset})

aliquamAbsolute.style.left = `${xOffset}px`
aliquamAbsolute.style.top = `${yOffset}px`

<!-- language: lang-css -->

.container {
  width: 100%;
  max-width: 60rem;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
}

p {
  font-size: 1.5rem;
}

.wrap {
  position: relative;
}

.absolute {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  inset: 0;
}

.red-text {
  color: red;
  margin: 0;
}

.aliquam-span {
  color: blue;
}

<!-- language: lang-html -->

<div class="container">
  <div class="wrap">
    <p>Maecenas a finibus sapien. Duis pulvinar ligula vel arcu cursus, in euismod nunc iaculis. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Fusce facilisis quis libero nec bibendum. Donec suscipit eros sit amet ex condimentum ullamcorper. Aliquam dictum, risus id pharetra congue, nisl nisi facilisis enim, sit amet facilisis nunc diam condimentum eros. Aenean euismod turpis id enim commodo sagittis. <span class="aliquam-span">Aliquam</span> eget dolor eget nulla tempus imperdiet. Praesent gravida, nisl quis malesuada faucibus, orci purus ultrices velit, ut porttitor libero ante at nisl. Duis eget convallis risus. Nunc vitae orci non tellus ultricies vestibulum in a augue. Vestibulum hendrerit leo ac nunc rutrum imperdiet. Integer sem tellus, maximus vel interdum ut, accumsan vel orci. Mauris maximus leo vitae felis dapibus euismod. Nulla facilisi. Donec ac ullamcorper justo.</p>
    <div class="absolute">
      <p class="red-text">Aliquam</p>
    </div>
  </div>
    
</div>

<!-- end snippet -->

The folks at GSAP helped me out on this one!

Three different answers here:

https://greensock.com/forums/topic/35705-tracking-position-of-a-text-span-with-javascript/