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HTML

Posted by Nas Jones
Nas Jones
7,849 Points

What is the difference between the div tag and the span tag?

Just curious what's the difference if I'm not mistaken span is used to style it later on. But im not too sure what's the difference and both their uses. When would i used either or?

2 Answers

Shaun Kelly
Shaun Kelly
35,560 Points

Hi Haki,

The way you structure your code is purely based upon your discretion. Your company may have guidelines that ask you to do things a certain way but this is something that will come naturally in time.

By default, div tags are block level elements and span tags are inline block elements so it all depends on the design and what you are trying to achieve.

Hope this helps, Shaun

Nas Jones
Nas Jones
7,849 Points

Thank you for responding, So the difference is one is block level and the other is inline correct?

Shaun Kelly
Shaun Kelly
35,560 Points
Shaun Kelly
Shaun Kelly
35,560 Points

From a CSS point of view yes. From a HTML point of view, I wouldn't use a span tag as a container/wrapper element. For that, I would use a div. I would most often use a span tag if I wanted to style a small piece of text inside a p tag like so....

<div class="container">
     <p class="paragraph">This is a paragraph I created <span class="paragraph__span">earlier</span></p>
</div>
Nas Jones
Nas Jones
7,849 Points

I see now, thank you for the help!