ansaurus

Question

HTML W3C Valid Elements - Is DIV valid within a TD?

Answer 1

+3 A:

Yes, div within td is perfectly valid. The elements list in the HTML5 spec draft is a useful reference for this sort of question, but basically, the valid children of td are flow elements, and div is a flow element.

The above references are for HTML5, which is the way forward (it both codifies what's already in the wild, and brings things forward; the major browser vendors are all involved). For HTML 4.01, the TD reerence is here, but I have to admit for 4.01 what I'd probably do is ask the W3C validator, which is quite robust for 4.01 (and not yet for HTML5). And the validator says...yup, just fine. Sample data:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"&gt;
<html>
<head><title>Hi</title></head>
<body>
<table><tbody><tr><td><div>x</div></td></tr></tbody></table>
</body>
</html>

T.J. Crowder 2010-06-25 11:04:02

HTML 4.01 and not HTML 5.

Gumbo 2010-06-25 11:05:45

@Gumbo: I totally missed that, I'll find the HTML 4.01 references, but HTML5 is the way forward in any case.

T.J. Crowder 2010-06-25 11:08:30

Updated. Answer is still: Yes, it's fine.

T.J. Crowder 2010-06-25 11:12:23

HTML 5 is an unstable draft containing large chunks of stuff that is impractical to use on the web today. It is worth keeping an eye on, but not rushing into. HTML 4.01 is still the best choice for most developers.

David Dorward 2010-06-25 11:18:21

@David: Parts of it are certainly unstable (even wildly unstable), but the majority of the *basics* (like which of the old elements can be inside which other old elements) have been reviewed and updated. I wouldn't start using `section` and such yet (not least because it won't work correctly on IE without JavaScript), but for the basics, it's now my default reference point.

T.J. Crowder 2010-06-25 11:50:56

Answer 2

+6 A:

Yes. According to the HTML 4.01 DTD, a td element can contain block-level elements and/or inline-level elements.

Relevent line of the DTD:

<!ELEMENT (TH|TD)  - O (%flow;)*       -- table header cell, table data cell-->

This line basically defines the th and td elements, and states that they may contain any combination (*) of block and inline elements (%flow;).

More info on td: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/tables.html#edef-TD

cmrn 2010-06-25 11:13:48

Answer 3

A:

Yes you can place a div in a td. I do it all the times.

SiN 2010-06-25 11:59:21

ansaurus

tags:

views:

answers:

HTML W3C Valid Elements - Is DIV valid within a TD?

related questions