!DOCTYPE

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by thetoxicboyttb

by thetoxicboyttb

!DOCTYPE

Whether you realize it or not, when you read text, your brain must first identify the text's language. If you can understand that language, then your brain immediately begins to interpret the text. This same process happens whether you're reading a street sign, a book, or a name tag.

Web browsers work in a similar way. They must know what language a document is written in before they can process its contents.

You can let web browsers know that you are using HTML by starting your document with a document type declaration.

The declaration looks like this: <!DOCTYPE html>. This declaration is an instruction. It tells the browser what type of document to expect, along with what version of HTML is being used in the document.

<!DOCTYPE html> must be the first line of code in all of your HTML documents. If you don't use the declaration, your HTML code will likely still work, however, it's risky. For now, the browser will correctly assume that the html in <!DOCTYPE html> is referring to HTML5, as it is the current standard.

In the future, however, a new standard will override HTML5. Future browsers may assume you're using a different, newer standard, in which case your document will be interpreted incorrectly. To make sure your document is forever interpreted correctly, always include <!DOCTYPE html> at the very beginning of your HTML documents.