Very Quick Easy Html Question That Ive Always Wondered..

[yandoo]

Hi there I have wondered something about html for ages and hope you could answer it for me.

 

Ive noticed in html some tages close with a / and others dontg, yet they produce the same result..

 

For example with tags on META data:

<META name"description" content="text of stuff and things">

<META name"description" content="text of stuff and things"/>

 

Another example is the br tag:

 

<br>
<br/>

 

Whats the best method for the closing tag? The / or not the slash?

 

Thank you for elevating me to a new sense of awareness

Edited December 16, 2012 by yandoo

[Christian F.]

This is one of the differences between using HTML and XHTML. While self-closing tags are optional in HTML, they're required in XHTML. If you're using HTML it's up to you, but it is considered best practise to close all of your HTML tags still.

[yandoo]

Thank you for the information and merry christmas

[DavidAM]

This is one of the differences between using HTML and XHTML. While self-closing tags are optional in HTML, they're required in XHTML. If you're using HTML it's up to you, but it is considered best practise to close all of your HTML tags still.

 

In HTML 4.01 Strict, the W3C Validation Service will produce warnings and errors if the "self-closing" tag is used. This style is defined for XHTML and HTML5

[Christian F.]

Hmm... Seems my memory played a trick on me there, been too long since I read the TR.

Thanks for correcting me, DavidAM.