HTML Guide

Start tag “br” seen in “table”.

br
table

A <br> element has been found in an invalid place within a <table> element.

For example, the following table has an invalid <br> between two <tr>, but the <br> that appears inside a <td> is valid.

<table>
  <tr>
    <th>Item</th>
    <th>Description</th>
  </tr>
<!-- The following br is invalid -->

  <br>
  <tr>
    <td>Book</td>
    <td>
<!-- The br in the following line is valid -->

      Title: HTML & CSS<br>
      Author: John Duckett
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

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Last reviewed: March 31, 2025

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Related W3C validator issues

A table row was X columns wide and exceeded the column count established by the first row (Y).

Table rows on the same <table> element must have the same number of columns, which comes determined by the first tr row.

For example, this table is wrong as the first row defines 2 columns, while the second row tries to use 4 columns:

<table>
    <tr>
      <td>Liza</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td>Jimmy</td>
      <td>14</td>
    </tr>
</table>

A table row was X columns wide, which is less than the column count established by the first row (Y).

A <table> contains a <tr> row that has less <td> columns than the column count established by the first row. Check the table to ensure all rows have the same number of columns.

For example, in the following table, the first <tr> row defines that it’s 2 columns wide, but the second <tr> row tries to use only 1 column:

<table>
<!-- This first row sets the table as 2 columns wide -->

  <tr>
    <td>First</td>
    <td>Second</td>
  </tr>

<!-- This second row has only 1 column -->

  <tr>
    <td>Wrong</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Attribute “height” not allowed on element “table” at this point.

End tag “br”.

The <br> tag inserts a line break, and it’s self-closing so you can use either <br> or <br/> but </br> is invalid.

As the <br> tag is a void element, it doesn’t need a closing tag, so <br> is preferred to <br/>.

First line<br>
Second line is also valid but discouraged.<br/>
Third line is invalid</br>

Misplaced non-space characters inside a table.

The W3C HTML Validator issue “Misplaced non-space characters inside a table” usually occurs when there are text nodes (or other elements) that are not properly placed within table elements. In HTML, all text content should be contained within table cells.

How to Fix the Issue

To resolve this issue, ensure that all text content is placed inside <td> or <th> elements, which are the valid child elements of <table>, <tr>, and related elements. Here’s how you can identify and fix the issue:

Example of Incorrect Table Structure

<table>
  <tr>
<!-- This is misplaced content -->

    <td>First Cell</td>
    <td>Second Cell</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Corrected Table Structure

<table>
  <tr>
<!-- All text should be inside <td> or <th> -->

    <td>First Cell</td>
    <td>Second Cell</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Guidelines

Text Content: Ensure that all text (including any headers or titles) is wrapped in <td> (for data cells) or <th> (for header cells). Keep in mind that event the non-breaking space character ( ) counts as text.
Table Structure: Remember a typical structure for a table includes <table> containing one or more <tr> elements, which in turn contain the <td> or <th> elements.
No Direct Text Nodes: Avoid having any direct text nodes outside of the cell elements within the table.

Row X of a row group established by a “tbody” element has no cells beginning on it.

A table row tr has been found, containing no td cells. Check the table and remove empty rows.

Table contents is organized in rows using the <tr> element, which must contain cells using the <td> element, as in this example:

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Name</th>
      <th>Age</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Liza</td>
      <td>12</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Jimmy</td>
      <td>14</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

A tr with no td cells on it will raise an issue, as in this example:

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Name</th>
      <th>Age</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>

    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Jimmy</td>
      <td>14</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Note that self-closing <tr/> elements also count as empty rows as are like <tr></tr>.

Start tag “a” seen in “table”.

table
a

An <a> element has been found in an invalid place within a <table> element.

For example, the following code would cause this issue:

<table>
  <tr>
    <a href="#">link</a>
  </tr>
</table>

Instead, the <a> element should be inside a <td> element, as a <tr> can’t hold content directly:

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <a href="#">link</a>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Stray start tag “br”.

A stray <br> happens when the <br> element, which is phrasing content, is placed in contexts that only allow specific children. Common mistakes include putting <br> directly inside <ul>, <ol>, <table>, <tr>, or outside <body>, and inserting it between block-level siblings to add spacing instead of using CSS. The validator flags this because it violates the HTML content model.

This matters for standards compliance, predictable rendering, and accessibility. Screen readers and assistive tech rely on correct structure (lists made of li, tables built from tr/td, sections within body). Misplaced <br> can produce confusing reading orders and inconsistent layout across browsers.

How to fix:

Keep <br> only where phrasing content is allowed (typically inside text-flowing elements like p, span, li, td, caption).
For spacing between blocks, use CSS margins instead of <br>.
For lists, use proper li items; for tables, place text inside td/th; for forms, use grouping and CSS.
Ensure no <br> appears outside <body> or inside elements that have restricted content models (ul, ol, table, tr, thead, tbody, tfoot, colgroup, select, dl directly, etc.).
If a line break is purely presentational across viewports, consider CSS (display:block, white-space) instead of <br>.

Examples

Valid use inside phrasing content

<p>
  First line.<br>
  Second line.
</p>

Invalid: <br> directly inside a list (triggers the error)

<ul>
  <br>
  <li>Item 1</li>
  <li>Item 2</li>
</ul>

Fix: remove the stray <br>; use list items only

<ul>
  <li>Item 1</li>
  <li>Item 2</li>
</ul>

Invalid: <br> outside <body> (triggers the error)

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <title>Stray br Tag Example</title>
</head>
<br>
<body>
  Content here.
</body>
</html>

Fix: move <br> inside the body (or use CSS if only spacing is needed)

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <title>No Stray br Tag</title>
</head>
<body>
  Content here.<br>
  New line in body.
</body>
</html>

Invalid: <br> as a child of <table> (triggers the error)

<table>
  <br>
  <tr>
    <td>A</td>
    <td>B</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Fix: use proper table rows and cells; place text inside cells

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>A</td>
    <td>B</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>More A</td>
    <td>More B</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Invalid: using <br> for spacing between blocks (not allowed between siblings)

<div>Section A</div>
<br>
<div>Section B</div>

Fix: use CSS margins for spacing

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <title>Spacing with CSS</title>
  <style>
    .block { margin-bottom: 1rem; }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <div class="block">Section A</div>
  <div>Section B</div>
</body>
</html>

Valid alternatives where a break is needed in phrasing context

<li>
  Address: 123 Main St.<br>
  Suite 400
</li>

Tips:

Use exactly <br> (no closing tag needed) and do not self-close as XML (<br />) unless your tooling requires it; both parse in HTML, but stick to HTML style for consistency.
If you see multiple “stray start tag ‘br’” errors, check parent containers: fixing the first invalid parent often resolves many subsequent errors.

Stray start tag “td”.

A td (table cell) start tag must be placed inside a tr (table row) within a table.

The td element represents a cell of a table that contains data. According to HTML specifications, a td must be a child of a tr, which in turn must be a child of a table. Placing a td directly outside a tr or outside a table is invalid and causes the “stray start tag ‘td’” error in the W3C Validator.

Incorrect usage:

<table>
  <td>Cell data</td>
</table>

In the above example, the td is not inside a tr.

Correct usage:

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>Cell data</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Here, the td is nested inside a tr, which is correctly within a table. This will resolve the validation error.

Table cell spans past the end of its row group established by a “tbody” element; clipped to the end of the row group.

A <td> or <th> element has a colspan attribute value that extends beyond the total number of columns defined in the <tbody> section.

HTML tables must have rows with a consistent number of columns within each <thead>, <tbody>, or <tfoot> group. If a cell uses the colspan attribute to span more columns than exist in the current row group, the table becomes semantically incorrect and fails validation.

Example of the Issue

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Cell 1</td>
      <td>Cell 2</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
<!-- Invalid: colspan="3" but only 2 columns in tbody -->

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

How to Fix

Ensure that the maximum number of columns in any row (considering colspan) within a <tbody> does not exceed the columns defined by the longest row in that group.

Corrected Example

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Cell 1</td>
      <td>Cell 2</td>
      <td>Cell 3</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="3">Spans all columns</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Or, if you only need two columns:

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Cell 1</td>
      <td>Cell 2</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">Spans two columns</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Adjust the column count by either increasing the number of cells in each row or reducing the value of colspan as appropriate for your table structure.