Unclear whether omitting <tbody> tags (putting <tr> directly under <table>) is valid

[BrianJDrake]

MDN URL

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/tbody

What specific section or headline is this issue about?

Technical summary

What information was incorrect, unhelpful, or incomplete?

The MDN <tbody> technical summary says:

A <tbody> element's start tag can be omitted if the first thing inside the <tbody> element is a <tr> element, and if the element is not immediately preceded by a <tbody>, <thead>, or <tfoot> element whose end tag has been omitted. (It can't be omitted if the element is empty.) A <tbody> element's end tag can be omitted if the <tbody> element is immediately followed by a <tbody> or <tfoot> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

That implies that this markup, which omits the <tbody> tag and puts <tr> directly under <table>, is valid:

<table>
    <tr></tr>
</table>

It should be considered valid, even though it really means this:

<table>
    <tbody>
        <tr></tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

But in #33505, which is basically the same issue on the <tr> page, the reporter @rschristian is adament that the shorter form is not valid. I did mention the <tbody> page, but nothing came of it, so I am opening an issue specifically for the <tbody> page.

What did you expect to see?

See above.

Do you have any supporting links, references, or citations?

No response

Do you have anything more you want to share?

No response

MDN metadata

Page report details

• Folder: en-us/web/html/element/tbody
• MDN URL: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/tbody
• GitHub URL: https://github.com/mdn/content/blob/main/files/en-us/web/html/element/tbody/index.md
• Last commit: 829db13
• Document last modified: 2024-03-25T18:37:02.000Z