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I was wondering if I can write self closing elements like in XHTML in HTML5, for example, <input type="email"> can be <input type="email" />, and will it still validate? And is this the correct way to code HTML5 web pages?
810
HTML5 can either be coded as XHTML, or as HTML 4. It's flexible that way.
As to which is the correct way, that's a preference. I suspect that many web designers into standards are used to XHTML and will probably continue to code that way.
You can go straight to: http://html5.validator.nu/ to validate your code, or if you have the right doctype, the official W3C site will use it for you.
134
answered Oct 25 '25 15:10
Self-closing tags may lead to some parsing errors. Look at this:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><title>Title</title></head>
<body>
<div>
<p>
<div/>
</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
While it is perfectly valid HTML4, it is invalid in HTML5.
W3C validation complains about <div/>:
Self-closing syntax (/>) used on a non-void HTML element. Ignoring the slash and treating as a start tag.
If innermost self-closed div is treated as start tag, it breaks whole structure, so be careful.
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