Some of the most common errors in the usage of XHTML are:
Not closing empty elements (elements without closing tags in HTML4)
Incorrect: <br>
Correct: <br />
Note that any of these is acceptable in XHTML: <br></br>, <br/>, and <br />. Older HTML-only browsers interpreting it as HTML will generally accept <br> and <br />.
In HTML4.01 or earlier, it is <br>. This is case-insensitive, and whitespace between the r and the > is ignored.
In all forms of XHTML it is <br/>. This is case-sensitive, and again whitespace between the r and the /> is ignored. <br></br> is also allowed, but unusual (there are backwards-compatibility issues, it's extra typing, and allows for bugs if you introduce more content between the tags by mistake, but it does sometimes happen in XML-programattically produced code).
Since some earlier browsers that would parse XHTML as earlier HTML would choke on <br/> but not on <br /> such extra whitespace is the norm, for backwards compatibility (more backwards kludging it, but still...).
@CIRK: HTML4,
<br>
. XHTML 1.x,<br />
.<br/>
is also acceptable.it is most formal to use
<br/>
this is then XHTML compliant - all opening tags have corresponding end tag.It does not need an end tag, so
is correct for HTML, and
for XHTML.
Here:
In HTML4.01 or earlier, it is
<br>
. This is case-insensitive, and whitespace between ther
and the>
is ignored.In all forms of XHTML it is
<br/>
. This is case-sensitive, and again whitespace between ther
and the/>
is ignored.<br></br>
is also allowed, but unusual (there are backwards-compatibility issues, it's extra typing, and allows for bugs if you introduce more content between the tags by mistake, but it does sometimes happen in XML-programattically produced code).Since some earlier browsers that would parse XHTML as earlier HTML would choke on
<br/>
but not on<br />
such extra whitespace is the norm, for backwards compatibility (more backwards kludging it, but still...).In HTML5 either are allowed (but not
<br></br>
).In HTML (up to version 4) it's
<br>
And in XHTML it's<br />
because the tag has to be properly closed with an /HTML5
<br>
is the best option.