Is the P Endtag Required?
W
3C says of
</P>
: "The end tag is optional as it can always be inferred by the parser." This means that a new
<P ...>
implies the end of
the previous
<P ...>
(and any alignment set by the previous
<P ...>
).
Any other block level element, such as
<HR ...>
or
<BLOCKQUOTE ...>
should also end the paragraph. However, it doesn't always
work out that way. Some browsers, for example, will right-align the text even after a table. In the following example, MSIE renders the "after the table" part as right aligned, while Netscape renders is as left aligned:
<P STYLE="text-align:right">
before the table
<TABLE BORDER>
<TR> <TH>Dawn</TH> <TD>1-2028</TD> </TR>
<TR> <TH>Mary K</TH> <TD>1-4952</TD> </TR>
</TABLE>
after the table
MSIE's rendering |
Netscape's rendering |
If you set the alignment or other style property for a paragraph element it's best to use
</P>
. If you never use set any styles then you can generally ignore
</P>
.
See W3C's specs for paragraphs for more information on this topic.