Error Message: vs

问题:

When you display an error message in HTML, which element do you use, <span> or <label>?

Can you list some pros and cons for each of them, assuming that some styling, such as color and margin will be applied through their class?

回答1:

Assuming you mean an error message associated with a specific form control, use a <label>.

The semantic arguments are subject to debate, as they aren't clear cut in this case, but the practical arguments win quite nicely. If a screen reader is in forms mode, it may skip over non-label text thus hiding the error messages from the user.

回答2:

Either can be used and both can be styled. I think the discussion will be about symantically which is more clear. I think of label elements as being associated with describing what a particular input element's intent. I don't feel displaying error info fits this and prefer the span.

回答3:

AFAIK, the purpose of a label is that clicking on the label clicks the control that it is "for". This is very helpful for things like checkboxes and radio buttons, where the actual control is small and tricky to click.

回答4:

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_label.asp: "The tag defines a label for an input element."

For regular inline text, use span.

回答5:

I'm likely to use <span> because each input field already has a <label> and it never occured to me to have two labels for one input field.

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This answer was wrong: see comments below.