<use>

The <use> element takes nodes from within the SVG document, and duplicates them somewhere else. The effect is the same as if the nodes were deeply cloned into a non-exposed DOM, and then pasted where the use element is, much like cloned template elements in HTML5. Since the cloned nodes are not exposed, care must be taken when using CSS to style a use element and its hidden descendants. CSS attributes are not guaranteed to be inherited by the hidden, cloned DOM unless you explicitly request it using CSS inheritance.

For security reasons, some browsers could apply a same-origin policy on use elements and could refuse to load a cross-origin URI within the xlink:href attribute.

Usage context

Categories	Graphics element, Graphics referencing element, Structural element
Permitted content	Any number of the following elements, in any order: Animation elements Descriptive elements

Attributes

Global attributes

• Conditional processing attributes »
• Core attributes »
• Graphical event attributes »
• Presentation attributes »
• Xlink attributes »
• class
• style
• externalResourcesRequired
• transform

Specific attributes

• x
• y
• width
• height
• xlink:href

DOM Interface

This element implements the SVGUseElement interface.

Example

<svg width="80" height="80" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
    xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
  <style>
    .classA {
      fill: red;
    }
  </style> 
  <defs>
    <g id="Port">
      <circle style="fill: inherit;" r="10"/>
    </g>
  </defs>
 
  <text y="15">black</text>
  <use x="50" y="10" xlink:href="#Port" />
  <text y="35">red</text>
  <use x="50" y="30" xlink:href="#Port" class="classA"/>
  <text y="55">blue</text>
  <use x="50" y="50" xlink:href="#Port" style="fill: blue;"/>
</svg>

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2 The definition of '<use>' in that specification.	Candidate Recommendation
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition) The definition of '<use>' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition

Browser compatibility