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:
<tagname>Content goes here...</tagname>
| Start tag | Element content | End tag |
|---|---|---|
<h1> | My First Heading | </h1> |
<p> | My first paragraph. | </p> |
<br> | none | none |
Some HTML elements have no content (like the `<br>` 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.
Nested Elements
Result
Never Skip the End Tag
Some HTML elements will display correctly even if you forget the end tag. However, never rely on this! Unexpected results and errors may occur if you forget the end tag!
HTML is Not Case Sensitive
HTML tags are not case sensitive: `<P>` means the same as `<p>`. The HTML standard does not require lowercase tags, but W3C recommends lowercase in HTML, and demands lowercase for stricter document types like XHTML.