code
Summary
The code element specifies a fragment of computer code.
Overview Table
Content within a code element is used to indicate a selection of text that is computer programming code, for instance:
- Filename
- Element name
- Function call
- Database query
- Input prompt
Or any string that a computer will parse.
Examples
This is a simple example of the code element to display a CSS snippet.
<p>Now let’s set the color to red: <code>color: #f00;</code>.</p>
This is another take on the example above, but includes a class to indicate the type of code being written.
<p>Now let’s set the color to red:
<code class="language-css">color: #f00;</code>.</p>
Usage
The code element is a phrasing-level element used to indicate a selection of code. It must not contain block-level elements, but it may contain other phrasing-level elements.
Often, authors will use a class attribute to indicate the language being used in the code element (see Example 2).
Notes
While the code element is often visually-presented in a monospace font like the pre element, unlike pre white space (spaces, tabs, etc.) inside a code element is **not preserved**.
When representing HTML code within a code element, remember to encode the reserved characters < and > with their HTML entity equivalents (< and >, respectively).
Related specifications
See also
Related articles
HTML
code
Text
code
Related pages
samp
Attributions
Microsoft Developer Network: [Windows Internet Explorer API reference Article]