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<div> vs <section>

Written byPhuoc Nguyen
Category
HTML
Created
04 Sep, 2020
Last updated
17 Mar, 2021
Contributors
pentzzsolt

Differences

  1. The `div` element has no special meaning. It is often used as a block of children elements.
    The `section` element introduced in HTML5 standard is used to group related elements, such as a subsection of a long article.
    In short, the `section` element provides more semantic syntax than the `div` element.
  2. Other than the semantic differences, `div` has its own constructor interface `HTMLDivElement`.
    `section` and other HTML5 elements such as `article`, `footer`, `header`, `main`, `navbar` do not have this. In fact, their constructors are from `HTMLElement`.
    Assume that our page is organized as following:
    <div id="root">
    <header></header>
    <section></section>
    <div></div>
    <footer></footer>
    </div>
    We can retrieve elements and print out the constructor for each of them:
    document
    .getElementById('root')
    .querySelectorAll('*')
    .forEach((e) => console.log(e.tagName, ':', e.constructor.name));

    // HEADER: HTMLElement
    // SECTION: HTMLElement
    // DIV: HTMLDivElement
    // FOOTER: HTMLElement
  3. If your page has nested `sections`, then the `h1` elements of the inner sections will have smaller font-sizez than the `h1` elements of the outer sections.
    <section>
    <h1>Heading</h1>

    <section>
    <h1>Heading of inner section</h1>
    </section>
    </section>
    The default CSS of browsers defines the font size for them. For example, Chrome defines the different font sizes for `h1` at different levels of `section`:
    /* First level */
    :-webkit-any(article, aside, nav, section) h1 {
    font-size: 1.5em;
    }

    /* Second level */
    :-webkit-any(article, aside, nav, section) :-webkit-any(article, aside, nav, section) h1 {
    font-size: 1.17em;
    }

    /* Third level */
    :-webkit-any(article, aside, nav, section)
    :-webkit-any(article, aside, nav, section)
    :-webkit-any(article, aside, nav, section)
    h1 {
    font-size: 1em;
    }

    /* Fourth level */
    :-webkit-any(article, aside, nav, section)
    :-webkit-any(article, aside, nav, section)
    :-webkit-any(article, aside, nav, section)
    :-webkit-any(article, aside, nav, section)
    h1 {
    font-size: 0.83em;
    }
    You can see the similar definitions in the default styles of Safari.
    This does not happen with the `div` elements. All the `h1` elements will have the same font size no matter how their `div` containers are structured.

Good practice

Due to the semantic manner, the `section` elements are often used to build the outlines of the page. We should use the heading elements (`h1 - h6`) inside section to indicate the summary of section.
<section>
<h2>This section tells about</h2>
</section>

<section>
<h2>Title of another section</h2>
</section>

Good to know

Nowadays, HTML5 standard are supported in modern browsers. But in the old days when it is required to support non-HTML5 browsers such as IE 8, we have to do some additional tasks.
  • By default, the unknown elements are styled as `display: inline`, hence we need to reset the value for HTML5 elements:
    article,
    aside,
    footer,
    header,
    nav,
    section {
    display: block;
    }
    The CSS normalizing libraries, such as normalize.css, add similar modifications:
    /* Render the `main` element consistently in IE */
    main {
    display: block;
    }

    /* Add the correct display in Edge, IE 10+, and Firefox */
    details {
    display: block;
    }
  • Plus, the older versions of IE do not support styling of unknown elements unless they are available in the DOM.
    As a result, we have to create them despite the fact that they are not used:
    <!--[if lt IE 9]>
    <script>
    document.createElement("article");
    document.createElement("aside");
    document.createElement("footer");
    document.createElement("header");
    document.createElement("nav");
    document.createElement("section");
    </script>
    <![endif]-->

Questions? 🙋

Do you have any questions? Not just about this specific post, but about any topic in front-end development that you'd like to learn more about? If so, feel free to send me a message on Twitter or send me an email. You can find them at the bottom of this page.
I have a long list of upcoming posts, but your questions or ideas for the next one will be my top priority. Let's learn together! Sharing knowledge is the best way to grow 🥷.

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Phước Nguyễn