HTML: Single vs Double quotes (' vs ")

Question

I've always used single quotes when writing my HTML by hand. I work with a lot of rendered HTML which always uses double quotes. This allows me to determine if the HTML was written by hand or generated. Is this a good idea?

What is the difference between the two? I know they both work and are supported by all modern browsers but is there a real difference where one is actually better than the other in different situations?

Answer 1

if you are writing asp.net then occasionally you have to use double quotes in Eval statements and single quotes for delimiting the values - this is mainly so that the C# inline code knows its using a string in the eval container rather than a character. Personally I'd only use one or the other as a standard and not mix them, it looks messy thats all.

Answer 2

In HTML I don't believe it matters whether you use " or ', but it should be used consistently throughout the document.

My own usage prefers that attributes/html use ", whereas all javascript uses ' instead.

This makes it slightly easier, for me, to read and check. If your use makes more sense for you than mine would, there's no need for change. But, to me, your code would feel messy. It's personal is all.

Answer 3

The w3 org said:

By default, SGML requires that all attribute values be delimited using either double quotation marks (ASCII decimal 34) or single quotation marks (ASCII decimal 39). Single quote marks can be included within the attribute value when the value is delimited by double quote marks, and vice versa. Authors may also use numeric character references to represent double quotes (") and single quotes ('). For double quotes authors can also use the character entity reference ".

So... seems to be no difference. Only depends on your style.

Answer 4

Double quotes are used for strings (i.e., "this is a string") and single quotes are used for a character (i.e., 'a', 'b' or 'c'). Depending on the programming language and context, you can get away with using double quotes for a character but not single quotes for a string.

HTML doesn't care about which one you use. However, if you're writing HTML inside a PHP script, you should stick with double quotes as you will need to escape them (i.e., \"whatever\") to avoid confusing yourself and PHP.

Answer 5

I use " as a top-tier and ' as a second tier, as I imagine most people do. For example

<a href="#" OnClick="Alert('Clicked!');">Click Me!</a>

In that example, you must use both, it is unavoiable.