When to use instead ?

Question

As the question indicates, if I have some text that I want to add in the HTML then when should I use

and when should I use ?<

Answer 1

Span is completely non-semantic. It has no meaning, and serves merely as an element for cosmetic effects.

Paragraphs have semantic meaning - they tell a machine (like a browser or a screen reader) that the content they encapsulate is a block of text, and has the same meaning as a paragraph of text in a book.

Answer 2

The <p> tag is a paragraph, and as such, it is a block element (as is, for instance, h1 and div), whereas span is an inline element (as, for instance, b and a)

Block elements by default create some whitespace above and below themselves, and nothing can be aligned next to them, unless you set a float attribute to them.

Inline elements deal with spans of text inside a paragraph. They typically have no margins, and as such, you cannot, for instance, set a width to it.

Answer 3

Semantically speaking, a p is a paragraph tag and should be used to format a paragraph of text. A span is an inline formatting change that isn't handled semantically.

Answer 4

A practical explanation: By default, <p> </p> will add line breaks before and after the enclosed text (so it creates a paragraph). <span> does not do this, that is why it is called inline.

Answer 5

tag is a block-level element but tag is inline element.Normally we use span tag to style inside block elements.but you don't need to use span tag to inline style.you have to do is; convert block element to inline element using "display: inline"

Answer 6

You should keep in mind, that HTML is intended to DESCRIBE the content it contains.

So, if you wish to convey a paragraph, then do so.

Your comparison isn't exactly right, though. The more direct comparison would be

When to use a <div> instead of a <p>?

as both are block level elements.

A <span> is inline, much like an anchor (<a>), <strong>, emphasis (<em>), etc., so bear in mind that by it's default nature in both html and in natural writing, that a paragraph will cause a break before and after itself, like a <div>.

Sometimes, when styling things — inline things — a <span> is great to give you something to "hook" the css to, but it is otherwise an empty tag devoid of semantic or stylistic meaning.