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Learn more about Labs Is the <div> tag ever an undesirable alternative to the <p> tag? Ask Question Asked 15 years, 7 months ago Modified 14 years, 4 months ago Viewed 29k times 18

I see the <p> tag used a lot in the code of others but have never used it in my own work.

I'm wondering what advantage this gives over using a <div> tag?

1. Are there any benefits I could get from incorporating the <p> tag into my pages?

2. Is there any disadvantage in only using <div> tags without <p>?

• html
• paragraph

Share Improve this question Follow edited May 25, 2009 at 16:33 eggdrop asked May 25, 2009 at 16:25 eggdropeggdrop 3,36655 gold badges3232 silver badges3535 bronze badges Add a comment |

7 Answers 7

Sorted by: Reset to default Highest score (default) Trending (recent votes count more) Date modified (newest first) Date created (oldest first) 29

DIV indicates a separate section on a page, which is not semantically connected to the others. With P tags you indicate that this piece of text is broken into paragraphs but it still stays a single entity.

ADDED: With "semantics" people usually refer to the possibility to extract information from HTML as to what various elements of a page represent and how they are related to each other, as opposed to treating the whole HTML as just a markup to be rendered. For example, when you do menus it is recommended that you use ULs (unordered list) for that purpose, because it will be possible to learn from the markup that all LIs (list items) contained within a particular list probably mean choice options of the same level. I know it is helpful for screen readers for impaired people that you try to make your markup as semantic-rich as possible.

If you're not concerned with this, then it is virtually no difference for the rendered result whether you use DIVs or Ps. You can style both with CSS to achieve the same look and feel.

Semantic HTML is still not "the absolute good" to be strived for. For many people semantics does not add any value as they wish just that their pages are rendered correctly. That's why the ever-lasting discussion on whether to use tables for markup (and add semantics where it does not belong) or stick to CSS is not going to end any soon.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited May 25, 2009 at 17:02 answered May 25, 2009 at 16:27 UserUser 30.9k2222 gold badges8181 silver badges108108 bronze badges 6

• Sorry. I don't understand what you mean by "not semantically connected to the others". – eggdrop Commented May 25, 2009 at 16:35
• 11 @Hippo A <div> can contain child elements that a <p> cannot: a <p>'s children are only inline elements and text node. – ChrisW Commented May 25, 2009 at 16:36
• "whether to use tables for markup (and break semantics) or stick to CSS" - after reading your explanation of semantics I expected the opposite - that tables reinforce semantics while CSS skirts semantics and simply allows all objects to be treated as equals. – eggdrop Commented May 25, 2009 at 16:59
• @eggdrop, I changed the wording of this passage to be more clear. – User Commented May 25, 2009 at 17:03
• 'Semantic HTML is still not "the absolute good" to be strived for' Good answer - in some cases semantics have no advantage, eg HTML inside of an OS app that never gets machine read. – MachineElf Commented Oct 2, 2013 at 13:00

| Show 1 more comment 11

p means 'paragraph', div means 'division'. That's as complicated as it gets. It's a way of telling search-engines, scrapers, tools, etc that this is a paragraph of text.

div is undesirable when you're actually marking up a 'paragraph' of text.

Share Improve this answer Follow answered May 25, 2009 at 16:44 SpliFFSpliFF 38.9k1616 gold badges9292 silver badges120120 bronze badges 7

• So essentially they are interchangeable as far as my layouts are concerned? If I'm using CSS for the layout I could use either without any particular advantages or disadvantages? – eggdrop Commented May 25, 2009 at 16:47
• correct, however it may have an impact on SEO or trigger different layout in some browsers (like to add a line of space between paragraphs on a text reader). – SpliFF Commented May 25, 2009 at 16:52
• @Lai: no, they are not really "interchangeable". <div> is meant for "generic" elements where there is no appropriate element to use, eg columns. <p> is for paragraphs, so for the column example, you'd have a <div> for the column, with paragraphs inside it. – DisgruntledGoat Commented May 25, 2009 at 17:05
• we're mixing terms here. I'm sure he means 'interchangeable' in regards to layout, not semantics (meaning). – SpliFF Commented May 25, 2009 at 17:24
• 2 In that case, the answer is still "no". <p> always has a margin by default whereas <div> doesn't; it's essentially a blank tag. (I know you can add or remove margins with CSS, but under that definition, practically every HTML tag in interchangeable.) – DisgruntledGoat Commented May 25, 2009 at 18:50

| Show 2 more comments 7

Both tags have a different purpose.

• p indicates a paragraph, usually for organising content (text and images,mostly)
• div on the other hand is a rectangular space on the canvas, usually for layout purposes.

Example: You would put your navigation panel in a div, making it easy to move it from the left to the right of the page, or switching to a 3 column layout. The different sections in your navigation (first the general site navigation, next specific hotlinks to the most recent blog post or whatever) could be seperated by putting them in defferent paragraphs.

(I know, bad example, because the navigation is better represented by unordered lists, but what the hey).

In direct answer to your question, they give you the advantage of differentiating between organising your layout and organising your content, in a way that becomes clear in the HTML source.

Share Improve this answer Follow answered May 25, 2009 at 16:42 TrebTreb 20.3k88 gold badges5959 silver badges8888 bronze badges 1

• When you say "they give you the advantage", what does "they" refer to? – eggdrop Commented May 25, 2009 at 16:45

Add a comment | 5

If you are tagging content so you can lay it out with CSS, you probably want <div>; <p> should be used to indicate a paragraph of text and that's it.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited May 25, 2009 at 16:41 Steve Jessop 279k4040 gold badges469469 silver badges709709 bronze badges answered May 25, 2009 at 16:39 Dan Davies BrackettDan Davies Brackett 10.1k22 gold badges3535 silver badges5454 bronze badges 6

• Yes I am primarily interested in using CSS for my layouts. Why do you say "and that's it"? – eggdrop Commented May 25, 2009 at 16:42
• <P>s are good for paragraphs but really don't serve any purpose for layout beyond adding some space between paragraphs or indenting lines, etc. That is, a typical layout would likely use <div>s for the major blocks, including the block wherein the <p>s are placed – Michael Haren Commented May 25, 2009 at 16:48
• @Michael Haren - Yes, that's what I've seen (regarding "a typical layout"). But my question was whether this needs to be the case. That is, whether a typical layout could as easily use <p>s for the major blocks, including the block wherein the <p>s are placed? – eggdrop Commented May 25, 2009 at 16:51
• Yes, that is technically true. It would go against how those tags were intended to be used, though (or at least how everyone else uses them). – Michael Haren Commented May 25, 2009 at 17:07
• 1 @eggdrop - no - &lt;p&gt;s can't be nested in text/html which restricts your layout options. As a demonstration see software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/… – Alohci Commented May 25, 2009 at 23:18

| Show 1 more comment 3

Beyond just the semantics of it (which are important), you will also want to consider validation problems. According to the HTML4 spec, you are not allowed to nest other block-level elements (<div>, <ul>, other <p>, etc) inside a <p> without invalidating your HTML.

I've seen a number of instances where parsers will choose to prematurely close the <p> to allow the other nested block element to begin.

Share Improve this answer Follow answered May 25, 2009 at 17:10 Bryan M.Bryan M. 17.3k88 gold badges4848 silver badges6060 bronze badges 2

• You mean like this: software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/… – eggdrop Commented May 26, 2009 at 1:45
• More or less. Firebug will do the same thing when inspecting the DOM. It's thrown me for a loop when trying to debug bad HTML in the past. – Bryan M. Commented May 26, 2009 at 19:06

Add a comment | 3

Are there any benefits I could get from incorporating the

tag into my pages?

Yes, provided that you use it correctly -- because the use of semantic HTML is always a benefit.

There are a range of reasons why this is so, but the primary one for people who need a quick explanation is SEO. Search engines will understand your page better if you use semantic HTML.

Share Improve this answer Follow answered May 26, 2009 at 0:02 AmbroseChapelAmbroseChapel 12.1k77 gold badges4949 silver badges6969 bronze badges 0 Add a comment | 1

p tags are for paragraphs. p tags often contain additional CSS styling regarding the textual content that goes into them, and this styling can be defined in various places in the css documentation. for example, a p usually has a bit of extra space below it. if you try laying something out with p tags, you'll end up with uneven padding.

It is better to use divs if you want to have more control over the content in your page from a programmatic perspective. sticking to divs for all layout concerns will also allow you to use p tags exclusively for paragraphs.

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Aug 24, 2010 at 15:33 fwitzfwitz 1111 bronze badge Add a comment |

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