div
elementinterface HTMLDivElement : HTMLElement {};
The div
element has no special meaning at all. It
represents
its children. It can be used with the class
, lang
, and title
attributes to mark up semantics common
to a group of consecutive elements.
Authors are strongly encouraged to view the
div
element as an element of last resort, for
when no other element is suitable. Use of more appropriate elements
instead of the div
element leads to better accessibility for
readers and easier maintainability for authors.
For example, a blog post would be marked up using article
, a chapter using section
, a page's navigation aids using
nav
, and a group of form controls using
fieldset
.
On the other hand, div
elements can be useful for stylistic
purposes or to wrap multiple paragraphs within a section that are
all to be annotated in a similar way. In the following example, we
see div
elements used as a way to set the language
of two paragraphs at once, instead of setting the language on the
two paragraph elements separately:
<article lang="en-US"> <h1>My use of language and my cats</h1> <p>My cat's behavior hasn't changed much since her absence, except that she plays her new physique to the neighbors regularly, in an attempt to get pets.</p> <div lang="en-GB"> <p>My other cat, coloured black and white, is a sweetie. He followed us to the pool today, walking down the pavement with us. Yesterday he apparently visited our neighbours. I wonder if he recognises that their flat is a mirror image of ours.</p> <p>Hm, I just noticed that in the last paragraph I used British English. But I'm supposed to write in American English. So I shouldn't say "pavement" or "flat" or "colour"...</p> </div> <p>I should say "sidewalk" and "apartment" and "color"!</p> </article>