# \<div /\> versus \<div\>\</div\>

**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/div-versus-div-div/83331
**Category:** web dev
**Created:** [March 17, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/div-versus-div-div/83331 "2005-03-17T22:04:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![petefs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dc4da7/32.png) [@petefs](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/petefs)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/div-versus-div-div/83331/1 "2005-03-17T22:04:52Z")

</div>

I have a two-column box set up as such:

```auto

                <div class="box">
                    <div class="col-left">
                        <h3>One</h3>
                        <p>Two</p>
                        <h5>$6.25</h5>
                        <hr />

                        <h3>One</h3>
                        <p>Two</p>
                        <h5>$5.99</h5>
                        <hr />
                    </div>
                    <div class="col-right">
                        <h3>One</h3>
                        <p>Two</p>
                        <h5>$7.99</h5>
                        <hr />

                        <h3>One</h3>
                        <p>Two</p>
                        <h5>$7.99</h5>
                        <hr />
                    </div>
                    <div class="clear"></div>
                </div>

```

and CSS as such:

```auto

.box {
    margin: 0 0 20px 0;
    padding: 20px 10px;
    background: #fff;
    }
.box .col-left {
    position: relative;
    float: left;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0 10px 0 0;
    width: 215px;
    border-right: 2px solid #eee;
}
.box .col-right {
    position: relative;
    margin: 0 0 0 235px;
    padding: 0;
    width: 220px;
}
.clear {
    clear: both;
}

```

Works fine, no problems. If I switch the clear divs to this:

```auto

<div class="clear" />

```

everything breaks.

Not a huge deal, but I’m curious. Can somebody explain it? (ditt0? ^\_^)

```auto

```