What is the difference between <section> and <div> in HTML?

Question

Hey SoloLearn Community! 👋

I often see both <section> and <div> used in HTML to structure content, but I'm a bit confused about when to use each of them.

How are <section> and <div> different?

Is one better than the other in certain scenarios?

Can you provide examples of when and why you'd use <section> instead of <div>?

Looking forward to your insights and examples!

Answer 1

Zvi, Of course, <div> is still used. It is important to understand that it is not informative for the browser and is perhaps the only element that does not have its own styling...

I apologize for my poor English, that's why I gave an example of my code in the comments, which contains a link to the course and another code example using <div>...

Good luck with your studies... 🖐️😎

Answer 2

<div> – outdated html4 element, does not contain any information for the site.
<section> – A newer html5 element, for more information, see the html5 page structuring lesson.

https://sololearn.com/compiler-playground/WuURFRZPW39x/?ref=app

Answer 3

Solo I wouldn’t call div an outdated html 4 element it is still used for many things, just not for entire sections

Answer 4

<div> is not outdated; it’s still widely used in HTML5 but has a different purpose compared to <section>.<div> is primarily used for grouping elements in a web page......

Answer 5

Behaku Awel Negash Both <div> and <section> are block-level container tags used for grouping other elements together.

<section> was introduced with HTML5 along with <header>, <main>, <footer>, <nav>, <article>, <aside> as SEMANTIC tags intended to replace <div> in many use cases.

Semantic tags give you some idea of the purpose of the tag's content just from the name of the tag.
Intended primarily to help search engine optimization and screen readers for visually impaired users.

Prior to HTML5, most complex web pages consisted of lots of nested <div> and <span> tags with only provided #ids and .classes on the tags to give you any clue on what the overall layout of the page might be.

Now with semantic tags like <section> you can clearly indicate the overall structure of a page, like having sections for introduction, background, main points of an article, conclusion.

You will still use <div>, but not as much as before. More likely now as a container for a flexbox or grid layout or similar purely cosmetic.