Chapter 2
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White Space

In order to make code easier to read, web page authors often add extra spaces or start some elements on new lines.

When the browser comes across two or more spaces next to each other, it only displays one space. Similarly if it comes across a line break, it treats that as a single space too. This is known as white space collapsing.

You will often see that web page authors take advantage of white space collapsing to indent their code in order to make it easier to follow.

Example

HTML

Result

< p>The moon is drifting away from Earth.< /p>
< p>The moon is____White Space_______ drifting away from Earth.< /p>
< p>The moon is drifting away from____________White Space_________
___________________Earth.< /p>

The moon is drifting away from Earth.

The moon is drifting away from Earth.

The moon is drifting away from Earth.

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