CDATA Section in HTML: Unlocking Raw Text

Defining CDATA

CDATA, or Character Data, is a special section within an HTML or XML document that allows unprocessed text to be included. It ensures that any text enclosed within a CDATA section is treated as literal data and not interpreted as HTML or XML tags.

Understanding CDATA's Purpose

The primary purpose of CDATA is to prevent special characters and tags from being parsed as part of the HTML or XML markup. This is particularly useful when including JavaScript code, CSS, or other data that may contain characters that would otherwise be interpreted as markup.

For example, if you wanted to include a script that contains the "greater than" symbol (>), which is used to close HTML tags, you would need to place it within a CDATA section to prevent it from being parsed as the end of an HTML tag.