Difference Between Inline vs Block
Any element within a program, document or message is called inline or in-line. When considering HTML, any code built into the web page is called inline. And it does not include any code loaded from an external file. In any web page, almost all the contents are inline except the CSS and image files. Any element that starts a new line for a paragraph and uses the full page or container is called block elements. It has one line or multiple lines and possesses a line break before and after the elements in the line. CSS can be used for formatting the block element.
Head to Head Comparison between Inline vs Block (Infographics)
Below are the top comparisons between Inline vs Block.
Key Differences Between Inline vs Block
Let us discuss some key differences between Inline vs Block in the following points:
- A block element always begins a new line and extends to left and right, and takes up the full width available. Examples of block elements are <address>, <main>, div> etc. a new line is not started with inline, and it takes up only necessary space or width. Inline elements are <input>, <select>, <time> etc.
- Block elements are within the HTML body that has both inline elements and other elements, whereas we cannot call inline elements as block elements. CSS properties are used to change the element from inline to block or otherwise. It also helps not to display the element at all.
- Block elements are a kind of blocks where there are many elements in a line itself. While inline elements take up the space of an entire line and there will be only one line within the space width.
- Inline elements do not respect the top and bottom margins but only the left and right and also consider the padding. While block elements respect left, right, top, bottom margins and padding.
- The width and height sets are not included in inline elements. There are width and height elements in block elements.
- Any elements are allowed to sit on the left and right of the inline elements. But block elements do not allow other elements to sit on the left and right as it is only other block elements.
- There is a line break after each block element, whereas there are no line breaks in an inline element.
- The width should be defined in the block element, or else the block element will occupy the entire width. Inline elements do not have this problem as it occupies the width as much as of the parent element.
- There are no line breaks before and after an inline element, and it accepts any HTML elements next to it. While there is whitespace before and after the block elements and there are no HTML elements next to the block elements.
Inline vs Block Comparison Table
The table below summarizes the comparisons between Inline vs Block.
| Inline |
Block |
| Inline elements can begin within a line of the HTML element, and it never starts a new line for the HTML. | Blocks cannot begin within a line of the HTML element, and it always starts the new line of the HTML. |
| The width is defined only till the tags of inline extends. | The width is more than inline and is extended till the parent element extends. |
| Inline elements can break among the lines. | Block elements cannot break among the lines. |
| Inline elements can be nested between the block and inline elements. Inline elements are kind of content related elements and display most of the contents. | Block elements cannot be nested between inline and block elements. Block elements are structure related and concerns with the structure of the element. |
| Inline elements create small structures and support mostly the files with small structures. | Block elements create large structures when compared with inline elements and easily support large files. |
| Inline elements have only data and other inline elements. It does not have any block elements. Thus when inline elements are called, it works only for files that need inline elements alone. | Block elements contain block elements and other inline elements so that when block and inline elements are needed, we can call block elements alone. |
| Inline elements are stored inside block elements and, therefore, do not require any particular space. | Block elements use all the space in the parent or container, and hence there will not be any space left for other files. |
| The content is filled and expanded horizontally and vertically to occupy the space allocated to inline elements. | Block elements expand to fill the width of the container vertically though it does not have any data within the elements. |
| Inline elements do not force new lines before and after the elements, and hence space is not occupied by inline elements. | Block elements force new lines before and after the elements so that space is occupied faster, and they include inline elements as well. |
| Border and padding of any type are accepted in inline elements that it can make any changes to the files. | Block elements accept only width, margins, border, height and padding. |
| Flows consistently and do not allow any line breaks in between the elements. This makes the file to occupy the available space and no extra space for the files. | Line breaks are formed in between the elements, and files occupy the maximum space allocated and also the extra space. Hence files should be created with extra space. |
| Inline elements accept only left and right margins and do not accept top and bottom margins. | Block elements accept all the margins, including left, right, top and bottom margins. Hence the elements are created easily with no margin constraints. |
| Width and heights are not considered in inline elements. The inline elements do expand in a way to accommodate other elements but not in terms of width and height. | Width and height are considered, and they expand in terms of width, height and borders mainly. This helps the files to find space of their own. |
Conclusion
HTML block helps the user create files with block and inline elements that are very useful for the files. The elements are lined up one after the other so that the files are not mixed up and confused.
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