- Void element
- Self-closing tags
- See also
- Found a content problem with this page?
- HTML Elements
- HTML Elements
- Nested HTML Elements
- Example
- My First Heading
- Example Explained
- My First Heading
- My First Heading
- and an end tag
- My First Heading
- Never Skip the End Tag
- Example
- Empty HTML Elements
- Example
- HTML is Not Case Sensitive
- HTML Tag Reference
- Html html tags with no end tag
- Eclipse: Solve «No end tag» Warnings When Tags Span Files?
- No End Tag in JSP taglibs
- Why do browsers think this <div/> tag isn’t immediately ended?
- Lt;custom> html tags with no function?
- HTML Singleton Tags With No Closing Tag
- What Is a Void Element?
- The List of HTML Void Elements
Void element
A void element is an element in HTML that cannot have any child nodes (i.e., nested elements or text nodes). Void elements only have a start tag; end tags must not be specified for void elements.
In HTML, a void element must not have an end tag. For example, is invalid HTML. In contrast, SVG or MathML elements that cannot have any child nodes may use an end tag instead of XML self-closing-tag syntax in their start tag.
The HTML, SVG, and MathML specifications define very precisely what each element can contain. So, some combinations of tags have no semantic meaning.
Although there is no way to mark up a void element as having any children, child nodes can be added programmatically to the element in the DOM using JavaScript. But that is not a good practice, as the outcome will not be reliable.
The void elements in HTML are as follows:
Self-closing tags
Self-closing tags ( ) do not exist in HTML.
If a trailing / (slash) character is present in the start tag of an HTML element, HTML parsers ignore that slash character. This is important to remember when an element such as or does require a closing tag. In this case, adding a trailing slash in the start tag does not close the element.
However, some code formatters add the trailing slash character to the start tags of void elements to make them XHTML-compatible and more readable. For example, some code formatters will convert to .
Self-closing tags are required in void elements in XML, XHTML, and SVG (e.g., ).
In SVG and MathML, elements that cannot have any child nodes are allowed to be marked as self-closing. In such cases, if an element’s start tag is marked as self-closing, the element must not have an end tag.
Note: If a trailing / (slash) character in a start tag is directly preceded by an unquoted attribute value — with no space between — the slash becomes a part of the attribute value rather than being discarded by the parser. For example, the markup results in the src attribute having the value http://www.example.com/logo.svg/ — which makes the URL wrong.
See also
Found a content problem with this page?
This page was last modified on Jun 8, 2023 by MDN contributors.
HTML Elements
An HTML element is defined by a start tag, some content, and an end tag.
HTML Elements
The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:
Examples of some HTML elements:
Note: Some HTML elements have no content (like the
element). These elements are called empty elements. Empty elements do not have an end tag!
Nested HTML Elements
HTML elements can be nested (this means that elements can contain other elements).
All HTML documents consist of nested HTML elements.
The following example contains four HTML elements ( , , and
):
Example
My First Heading
My first paragraph.
Example Explained
The element is the root element and it defines the whole HTML document.
It has a start tag and an end tag .
Then, inside the element there is a element:
My First Heading
My first paragraph.
The element defines the document’s body.
It has a start tag
and an end tag .Then, inside the element there are two other elements: and
:
My First Heading
My first paragraph.
The element defines a heading.
It has a start tag
and an end tag
:
My First Heading
The
element defines a paragraph.
It has a start tag
and an end tag
:
Never Skip the End Tag
Some HTML elements will display correctly, even if you forget the end tag:
Example
This is a paragraph
This is a paragraph
However, never rely on this! Unexpected results and errors may occur if you forget the end tag!
Empty HTML Elements
HTML elements with no content are called empty elements.
The
tag defines a line break, and is an empty element without a closing tag:
Example
This is a
paragraph with a line break.
HTML is Not Case Sensitive
HTML tags are not case sensitive: means the same as
.
The HTML standard does not require lowercase tags, but W3C recommends lowercase in HTML, and demands lowercase for stricter document types like XHTML.
At W3Schools we always use lowercase tag names.
HTML Tag Reference
W3Schools’ tag reference contains additional information about these tags and their attributes.
| Tag | Description |
|---|---|
| Defines the root of an HTML document | |
| Defines the document’s body | |
| to | Defines HTML headings |
For a complete list of all available HTML tags, visit our HTML Tag Reference.
Html html tags with no end tag
From the point of CSS, applying CSS to tags is not limited to official HTML tags, as you can apply CSS to something like XML too (ex. See this qustion: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/211394/when-to-use-custom-html-tags Solution 2: They aren’t HTML (except for those which are) Internet Explorer (except maybe version 9) won’t let you style them without JavaScript hacks You may get unexpected results, especially in non-visual user agents (such as search engines) and tools that work with the DOM in the browser (such as screen readers).
Eclipse: Solve «No end tag» Warnings When Tags Span Files?
Rename them to .jspf files so they’re considered JSP Fragments, then disable validation of fragments in the preferences.
Right-click on editor, go to Vaidation -> select Ignore
Hope it help !
Html — What do you call tags that need no ending tag?, In paired tags, the first tag is referred to as Opening Tag and the second tag is referred to as Closing Tag. Example: This text is in italics. Note: Here is called opening tag. and is called closing tag. Unpaired Tags: An unpaired tag does not have a companion tag. Unpaired tags are also known …
No End Tag in JSP taglibs
Just get rid of all those scriptlets (the oldschool things). They don’t mix well with taglibs. The JSTL attributes take EL expressions only.
E.g., assuming that you’ve done a request.setAttribute(«results», results) beforehand, which designtechnically needs to be done in a servlet, but can also be done in a scriptlet somewhere in top of JSP.
. $ " value="$" $ onclick="someFunction(this)" /> . It’s instantly also much better readable this way.
See also:
Html — Eclipse: Solve «No end tag» Warnings When Tags, I’m using Eclipse 3.7.2 on Windows 7 on a legacy Java webapp. The webapp uses many JSP include files where a tag might be opened in that file, but closed in …
Why do browsers think this <div/> tag isn’t immediately ended?
Strictly speaking, the element is a non-void/non-empty element in HTML, i.e. it is not meant to self-close. Although is valid XHTML — due to/> being indicative of a self-closing (or empty) XML element — it’s interpreted by common HTML parsers and some validators as an unclosed opening tag, and is therefore invalid HTML 4.01 and HTML5. 1
In fact, running your given HTML fragment through the W3C validator (as HTML5) results in this error message:
Self-closing syntax (/>) used on a non-void HTML element. Ignoring the slash and treating as a start tag.
From the HTML5 spec (in the first link):
A non-void element must have an end tag, unless the subsection for that element in the HTML elements section of this reference indicates that its end tag can be omitted.
Following that, the subsection for the element states:
A div element must have both a start tag and an end tag.
And that’s why you’re seeing what you’re seeing.
1 In true XHTML pages (serialized as XML by serving as application/xhtml+xml ), the first
element will not expand to wrap the secondelement. Instead, as XHTML it will follow XML rules and contain itself as an empty element, rather than follow HTML tag soup rules and be interpreted as an opening tag by itself.
The tag needs a separate closer at this point — maybe that may be appended.
Note that in a proper syntax, even self-closing tags need an extra space (
, not
)
Does the tag in HTML have an ending tag?, there are tags that don’t make sense to have a beginning and end tag, like , there really is no reason to have the ending tag, so it …
Lt;custom> html tags with no function?
Short answer; don’t. It will not be valid (except in XHTML where you can add such tags)
It will not only break in some browsers it will be confusing for other people to read as well.
See this qustion: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/211394/when-to-use-custom-html-tags
- They aren’t HTML (except for those which are)
- Internet Explorer (except maybe version 9) won’t let you style them without JavaScript hacks
- You may get unexpected results, especially in non-visual user agents (such as search engines) and tools that work with the DOM in the browser (such as screen readers).
- If they get added to HTML in the future, they might not mean what you intended them to mean and default stylesheets might interact with your stylesheets in unwanted ways.
If you read W3C’s specifications, you see that it is necessary for browsers not to bubble upo any exception. Browsers have many parsers , one for HTML , one for CSS and one for JavaScript . When you use custom tags in your HTML document, and browser tries to understand it, it simply doesn’t understand. But the good point is that, it doesn’t throw exception. In other words, your custom element won’t cause any problem in browser.
However, you loos valid badge, that is, your HTML document won’t be regarded as valid anymore.
From the point of CSS, applying CSS to tags is not limited to official HTML tags, as you can apply CSS to something like XML too (ex. Applying CSS on XML). So, you can technically format your custom element across browsers.
If you don’t mind, I have a better recommendation for you. Why not sticking to community-agreed-upon HTML5 custom attributes? The start with data prefix and can pass validation tests. Ex. .
Html — End tag is missing matching start tag, 1 Answer. The end tag for p elements is optional. p elements cannot contain other p elements. The first p start tag opens the first p element. The second p start tag …
HTML Singleton Tags With No Closing Tag
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Jennifer Kyrnin is a professional web developer who assists others in learning web design, HTML, CSS, and XML.
For most HTML elements, you begin with an opening tag and end with a closing tag. Between those two tags, the content of the element appears. For example:
The simple paragraph element shows how an opening and a closing tag is used. Most HTML elements follow this same pattern, but several HTML tags do not include both an opening and a closing tag.
What Is a Void Element?
The void elements or singleton tags in HTML don’t require a closing tag to be valid. These elements are usually ones that either stand alone on the page or where the end of their contents is obvious from the context of the page itself.
The List of HTML Void Elements
Several HTML 5 tags are void elements. When you write valid HTML, you should leave off the trailing slash for these tags as shown below. The trailing slash is required, however, for valid XHTML.
- : Used for the area inside of an image map.
- : The base URL for all relative URLs in a document. There can be no more than one of these per document and it must be in the head of the page.
- : A line break, often used in text content to create a single line break instead of a paragraph. It should not be used to create visual separation on a page by stacking up many
tags, because that function is a visual need and therefore the domain of CSS instead of HTML. - : Specifies column properties for each column within a element.
- : Specifies a command that a visitor can invoke.
- : Used with external applications and interactive content for integration.
- : A horizontal rule, which is a straight line on a page. In many cases, CSS borders create separator lines instead of this HTML element.
- : One of the workhorse elements of HTML, this is the image tag. It is used to add graphic images to a webpage.
- : A form element that is used to capture information from visitors. There are a number of valid input types, from the common «text» input that has been used in forms for years, to some new input types that are part of HTML5.
- : This tag creates a key-pair generator field that is used for forms.
- : Not to be confused with the «hyperlink» or anchor () tag, this link is to set linkage between a document and an external resource. Use it to link to an external CSS file, for example.
- : Meta tags are «information about content.» They are found in the head of a document and used to convey page information to the browser. There are many different meta tags that you can use on a webpage.
- : Used to define parameters for plugins.
- : This tag allows you to specify alternative file paths for media on your page, including videos or images or audio files.
- : This tag sets a track to be used with a media file, a video, or audio, which are often added with the or tags.
- : This stands for Word Break Opportunity. It specifies where in a block of text it would be acceptable to add a line break.