"Using" option in jQuery position api

Question

In jQuery documentation it says the feedback argument gives horizontal, vertical and important, giving you twelve potential directions like { horizontal: "center", vertical: "left", important: "horizontal" }.

Ref:https://api.jqueryui.com/1.12/position/

What are the possible 12 directions?How do they arrive at 12 directions?What is important?

As per the jQuery ui code I can see only these values getting set.

Horizontal - left, right ,center Vertical - top,bottom,middle Important - horizontal/vertical

There is no value 'left' set for vertical.

Answer 1

Pretty sure they mean:

Horizontal: "left", "center", "right"
Vertical:   "top", "middle", "bottom"
Important:  "horizontal", "vertical"

The second provides feedback about the position and dimensions of both elements, as well as calculations to their relative position. Both target and element have these properties: element, left, top, width, height. In addition, there's horizontal, vertical and important, giving you twelve potential directions like { horizontal: "center", vertical: "left", important: "horizontal" }.

I think important is which of the other two directions (a total of 6 direction) has priority. 6 x 2 = 12? I'm not sure of their logic here. It's also not so clear how it should be used. I created the following for testing.

$(function() {
  function makeDiv(event) {
    var d = $("<div>", {
      id: "position" + ($("[id^='position']", event.target).length + 1),
      class: "positionDiv circle"
    }).appendTo($(event.target));
    d.position({
      my: "center",
      of: event,
      using: function(pos, props) {
        console.log(pos, props);
        var tg = props.target,
          el = props.element;
        $(this).css(pos);
        $(this).html("T: " + pos.top + "<br />L: " + pos.left + "<br />H: " + props.horizontal +"<br />V: " + props.vertical + "<br />I: " + props.important);
      }
    });
  }
  $("#position1").position({
    my: "center",
    at: "center",
    of: "#targetElement"
  });
  $("#targetElement").click(makeDiv);
});

#targetElement {
  height: 200px;
  margin: 10px;
  background: #9cf;
}

.positionDiv {
  position: absolute;
  width: 75px;
  height: 75px;
  background: #080;
}

.positionDiv.circle {
  border-radius: 50%;
  text-align: center;
  font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif;
  font-size: 12px;
}

<link rel="stylesheet" href="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.12.1/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css">
<script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.12.4.js"></script>
<script src="//code.jquery.com/ui/1.12.1/jquery-ui.js"></script>

<div id="targetElement">
  <div class="positionDiv" id="position1"></div>
</div>

Not exactly the answer you were looking for. I hope it helps a bit.