ASP.Net literal. Insert html

Question

I have simple literal on my page.

<asp:Literal ID="litDescription" runat="server"></asp:Literal>

When I am trying to set the following text to the literal:

<p><div>Some Text</div></p>

in my browser's markup I see

<p></p>
    <div>Some Text</div>
<p></p>

Why there are two 'p' tags? I need to have

<p><div>Some Text</div></p>.

How are you trying to insert the values? Please post the code. — Oded, Dec 04 '12 at 15:38
@Mehdi, literals are more appropriate when it's just text: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3309398/asp-net-literal-vs-label — IrishChieftain, Dec 04 '12 at 15:48

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 03 '20 at 08:14

9

A div inside a P is invalid HTML. I don't think .net is making the

up. I think it comes from your browser.

edited Sep 03 '20 at 08:14

Overwatch

answered Dec 04 '12 at 15:41

Predders

1

+1. If you do a `View Source` you will see there are not the extra `p` tags, but you will in your "Inspector" (Chrome, FF, IE, etc). The browser is trying to fix the DOM to deal with an invalid situation. – BLSully Dec 04 '12 at 15:53

Tom · Answer 2 · 2012-12-04T15:49:19.043

1

It's bad syntax to have a <div> tag inside of a <p> tag. It should be <div><p>Some Text</p></div>

in C#:

litDescription.Text = "<div>Some Text</div>";

However that is still bad syntax. If you are using the div to apply inline styling to a part of the <p> tag, use <span> instead of <div>.

litDescription.Text = "Some Text"; is the correct html syntax.

edited Dec 04 '12 at 15:49

answered Dec 04 '12 at 15:41

Tom

the literal control does not wrap its contents in `
` tags.
– Graham Clark Dec 04 '12 at 15:48
My mistake. Fixed it so you can remove the -1. – Tom Dec 04 '12 at 15:49
Doing `litDescription.Text = "Some Text";` will just write `Some Text` on the page, with no tags. The easiest way to achieve some text inside a `span` is to use a `Label` control without setting the `AssociatedControlId` property. – Graham Clark Dec 04 '12 at 15:51
This was assuming he was using incorrect syntax for a reason, such as `
Some Text and some more text
`. – Tom Dec 04 '12 at 15:53

andleer · Answer 3 · 2012-12-04T15:49:31.227

0

A different approach that is more in line with the server side control structure of asp.net web forms.

<p><div>
<asp:Literal id=DescriptionLiteral runat="server" />
</div></p>

// c# code:
DescriptionLiteral.Text = "Some Text";

Note that a <div> tag nested within a <p> tag is not valid HTML markup.

edited Dec 04 '12 at 15:49

answered Dec 04 '12 at 15:43

andleer

3 Answers3