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Are Self-Closing HTML Spans Valid in All Cases?
- Susan SarandonOriginal
- 2024-11-02 02:42:02862browse
Self-Closing HTML Spans: Valid or Invalid?
Can HTML spans be closed using the self-closing syntax, i.e., ? The validity of this approach depends on your document type.
XHTML
In XHTML (HTML that adheres to XML standards), self-closing tags are supported by all major browsers. For instance, the following code is valid in XHTML:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<h2 id="test">Test</h2>
<p>Some stuff <span class="drop" /></p>
</body>
</html>
HTML
However, in HTML (without the XHTML doctype), self-closing tags are only valid for a limited set of elements. To determine if a specific element can be self-closed, refer to the W3C spec for that element (e.g.,
Additional Notes:
- Certain browsers may incorrectly interpret self-closing tags in HTML. To ensure compatibility, it's best to use the full closing tag syntax, i.e., .
- As servers typically serve pages as text/html, the vast majority of cases should use the traditional closing syntax.
Helpful References:
- [W3C Validator](https://validator.w3.org/)
- [XHTML vs HTML](https://www.w3.org/2002/Talks/1206-xhtml2/history.html)
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