Description

The <dir> (short for directory) tag specifies a directory list. It was designed to be used for creating multicolumn directory lists.

The following table summarizes the usages context and the version history of this tag.

Placement:Block
Content:<li> elements that are constrained to contain inline content only
Start/ End Tag:Start tag: required, End tag: required
Version:HTML 2, 3.2, 4, 4.01

Warning: Do not use this tag as it has been deprecated in HTML 4.01 and obsolete since HTML5. Use the <ul> tag instead.

Syntax

The basic syntax of the <dir> tag is given with:

HTML/XHTML: <dir> ... </dir>

The example below shows the <dir> tag in action.

<!--Example of bad usage. Don't use this tag-->
<dir>
    <li>examples</li>
    <li>tutorials</li>
</dir>
<!--Alternative-->
<ul>
    <li>examples</li>
    <li>tutorials</li>
</ul>

Tag-Specific Attributes

The following table shows the attributes that are specific to the <dir> tag.

Global Attributes

Like all other HTML tags, the <dir> tag supports the global attributes in HTML5.

Event Attributes

The <dir> tag also supports the event attributes in HTML5.

Browser Compatibility

Element
<dir>YesYesYesYesYes