html - Can you have a <span> within a <span>?

Question

Here is the story: I'm using SWFObject to insert a Flash object into my page. The embedding eats my span. So, I lose all my CSS for it. I was thinking of moving all of the CSS to the parent so I don't lose my CSS styles when the Flash appears.

I have tried using a span within a span, but I don't think it's working. Is there a reason for this? I don't understand why you could have div within a div but not a span within a span.

Does it have to do with spans being inline?

Answer 1

HTML4 specification states that:

Inline elements may contain only data and other inline elements

Span is an inline element, therefore having span inside span is valid. There's a related question: Can <span> tags have any type of tags inside them? which makes it completely clear.

HTML5 specification (including the most current draft of HTML 5.3 dated November 16, 2017) changes terminology, but it's still perfectly valid to place span inside another span.