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Start your free trialJentry J
1,821 PointsThis wasn't covered in the video, doest it matter if you add a closing bracket to self-closing elements?
Just curious if it really matters that it's self-closing, and if I added a closing bracket if it would actually effect the code?
** I will be attempting to try this on my own, but wanted to leave this for any other curious folks.
2 Answers
Steven Parker
231,072 PointsIf you mean "end tag" then yes, it would be a syntax error.
For example, if you wrote this:
<img src="dog.jpg" alt=""></img>
That's not valid HTML. But browsers generally ignore the spurious end tag, so trying this out may not generate any errors or unexpected rendering effects.
Jentry J
1,821 PointsThank you, this is pretty much where my brain went! -
Randy Eichelberger
1,491 PointsThe break take used to just be <br> but with the standards of xhtml they came out with <br /> which basically added a / at the end of any self closing tags such as the line break. Browsers probably still remember how to handle things without the / at the end but it's bad form to do that now a days.
Steven Parker
231,072 PointsThat's a DOCTYPE issue. If your DOCTYPE is html, then for void tags like "<br>
" that form is correct. A slash at the end of the start tag is allowed, but has no meaning. But if the DOCTYPE is XHTML, then only "<br />
" is correct.
Adhering to the standards of the declared DOCTYPE is the best practice, mixing them would be "bad form".
Randy Eichelberger
1,491 PointsSteven, While it is bad form, it still works
<!DOCTYPE xhtml>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Here is some text</p>
<p>Here is some more</p>
<br>
<p>Oh look more</p>
</body>
</html>
Still works just as if it was <br />
I know they left it working so people used to html before xhtml wouldn't have a ton of issues and I don't think they ever went back and fixed it. That said other than usin git in examples to show it works I've never used it without the / lol
Steven Parker
231,072 PointsI don't think that's actually an xthml DOCTYPE tag, the document was probably being processed as html. Take a look at the W3C valid doctypes list.
Jentry J
1,821 PointsJentry J
1,821 PointsFound this! - http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/to-close-or-not-to-close-tags-in-html5