DD - Definition Description

Summary

Syntax	<DD>...</DD>
Attribute Specifications	common attributes
Contents	Inline elements, block-level elements
Contained in	DL

Details

The DD element provides the definition of a term in a definition list. The closing tag for DD is optional, but its use prevents common browser bugs with style sheets.

DD may contain block-level elements such as P, H2, TABLE, and DL. This allows definition lists to be nested, as in the following example:

<DL>  <DT><A NAME="spanning-tree">Spanning tree</A></DT>  <DD>    <P>      A spanning tree of a graph is a <A HREF="#tree">tree</A>      that contains all the vertices of the graph. There are two      main types of spanning trees:    </P>    <DL>      <DT>BFS spanning tree</DT>      <DD>        A spanning tree formed by a breadth-first search on the graph.      </DD>      <DT>DFS spanning tree</DT>      <DD>        A spanning tree formed by a depth-first search on the graph.      </DD>    </DL>  </DD>  <DT><A NAME=tree>Tree</A></DT>  <DD>    <P>      A tree is a connected, undirected graph without cycles.    </P>  </DD></DL>

A DD element should generally be preceded by a DT element that gives the term defined by the DD. A single definition term may have multiple definitions associated with it, and a single definition may have multiple terms.

More Information

• DD in W3C HTML 4.0 Recommendation
• DD in W3C HTML 3.2 Recommendation
• DD in HTML 2.0 Standard
• DD in WDG HTML 3.2 Reference
• DD in Learning HTML 3.2 by Examples

Copyright © John Pozadzides and Liam Quinn. All rights reserved.