Some Block level elements cannot contain Block elements

HTML & CSS
1

Hi,

I used to think that all block-level elements can contain block elements & inline elements.

In reference.sitepoint.com/html/h1, [URL=“http://reference.sitepoint.com/html/h6”]reference.sitepoint.com/html/h6 , [URL=“http://reference.sitepoint.com/html/p”]reference.sitepoint.com/html/p etc. it’s mentioned:

This element may contain any text content, but it can’t include any block-level elements: only inline or phrase elements can be included.

When I checked, I saw that <h1>, <h2>…<h6>, <p>, <li> inside <dir> or <menu> cannot contain block-level elements.

Are there any other block elements that cannot contain block elements?

2

dt is another one I can think of.

3

ya…


<dl>
   <dt>
      <div>hi</div>
   </dt>
</dl>

is not validating

4

reference.sitepoint.com/html/dt

Note that it can’t contain any block-level elements—not even p or heading elements such as h1, h2, and so on. It can only contain text.

Any other?

5

The answer to the question partially depends upon whether you are using either: Strict or Transitional HTML 4.01 markup?

Since it actually differs on what is allowed within a block-level element itself. :wink:

Thus assuming Strict others may include: ADDRESS, FIELDSET, PRE there are other deprecated tag examples and some that obviously follow ‘specific rules’ e.g. like UL having a LI but I won’t bother with those, etc. Maleika already covered definition lists and you spotted some others at that SP refrence too.

6

thanks Robert

I’m concerned about Strict mode.

Where to find more details? Sitepoint’s reference on ADDRESS, FIELDSET, PRE doesn’t mention anything about this.
Where do you get such info?

7

From the horse’s mouth: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401 rather than a book it’s explained in the W3C TR http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/index/elements.html even though its not light reading.