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when to use a div or a table

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Feb 11.2008

Hi there,

Recently I have done a lot with the div tag – I like it… The question is going forward I plan to remove the use of tables and start using divs to create layouts however sometimes I wonder – “is it just better to use a table here?” For example an input form, you want everything to line up nicely and whatever – you wouldn’t want have a create a bunch of div’s indside of div’s that would seem like a lot of work.

Is there a better way to do it? Or in that situation should I just use a table?

Thanks for your advice.

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@ray326Feb 11.2008 — You use tables when you have tabular data to display. Arguably a form is single row tabular data but it's much better handled with appropriate form tags like "label" along with divs and CSS to pretty things up. I don't see that labels and divs inside of divs, fieldsets, labels, etc. are any more work than cells in rows in tables in cells in rows in tables.
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@felgallFeb 11.2008 — Use tables for tabular data.

Use divs for divisions within your page.

Use whatever other HTML tag is most appropriate for the content you have in your page that isnn't a division or tabular data.

Too many people get rid of the non-semantic table from their page and replace it with equally non-semantic divs which means that their page is no better semantically that it was before.
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