What is the difference between
and
in HTML?

Question

So the thing is, I am currently analyzing html documents by reading them though java and I see that the p tag is one of the most commonly used tags. I know that it's there to provide a new line, but what I don't know is why in some documents I see

<P>Hello world!</P>

and in others

<p>Hello world!</p>

Sometimes both are even used in the same document.

It seems to have exactly the same effect but I am just wondering if there is any reason these two variations exist.

See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19808514/is-it-bad-to-use-uppercase-letters-for-html-tags — j08691, Aug 15 '14 at 14:23
HTML parsers are case insensitive; these are the same thing. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4351857/is-html-case-sensitive — duffymo, Aug 15 '14 at 14:23
p tag is not used for a new line. It is used to separate paragraphs. — Matt R, Aug 15 '14 at 14:24
@j08691: Well I googled it and didn't find anything. Anyway; thanks for the downvote :3 — Jonas Bartkowski, Aug 15 '14 at 14:24
If you see both the uppercase and the lowercase versions in the same document, it only means one thing: sloppy coder(s). — Shomz, Aug 15 '14 at 14:25
One of them breaks your case-sensitive regexes, the other doesn't? :-) — afrazier, Aug 15 '14 at 14:25
@Shomz: Thanks. That answer is bascially exactly what I needed :) — Jonas Bartkowski, Aug 15 '14 at 14:31

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 15 '14 at 14:23

9

There is no difference.

In HTML, elements are case-insensitive.

However, in XHTML, you must use lowercase.

answered Aug 15 '14 at 14:23

Oriol

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Thanks! I like the additional information you gave. – Jonas Bartkowski Aug 15 '14 at 14:26

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 15 '14 at 14:23

5

http://www.w3.org/TR/html-markup/documents.html#case-insensitivity

HTML is case-insensitive. as you can see in the documentation.

answered Aug 15 '14 at 14:23

aahhaa

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Thank you. Official documentation is definitely the best source there is on this topic. – Jonas Bartkowski Aug 15 '14 at 14:29
The link seems to be down. This seems to be the new one: https://w3c.github.io/html-reference/documents.html#case-insensitivity – hb20007 Oct 14 '20 at 17:16

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 15 '14 at 14:25

1

They're same. It does not matter if its lowercase or uppercase or even mixed.

answered Aug 15 '14 at 14:25

JBN

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Thanks! I was confused because some of the pages I read seemed to be automatically generated, which lead me to think there could be a difference. – Jonas Bartkowski Aug 15 '14 at 14:35
Usually, HTML is very lenient. Pages can be generated even without tags which is not a good way though ;) But that would be wrong in case you have to be verified by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) – JBN Aug 15 '14 at 14:41
I think you can even do. , but what's the point. :D – aahhaa Aug 15 '14 at 17:08

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 15 '14 at 14:26

1

<p></p> Is used for a new paragraph

HTML is case-insensitive, which means you can use both spellings.

answered Aug 15 '14 at 14:26

samvdst

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Thanks! New line was the wrong term I guess. What I meant was paragraph, so thanks for clearing that. – Jonas Bartkowski Aug 15 '14 at 14:33

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 15 '14 at 14:40

1

there is no difference. Inherited from SGML, HTML is not case sensitive for elements and attributes.

I prefere to use the lower-case form... Else I've the impression that the coder is shouting at me ^^

answered Aug 15 '14 at 14:40

Frédéric Blanc

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What is the difference between and in HTML?

5 Answers5

What is the difference between
and
in HTML?