The <code> tag in HTML is used to define a piece of computer code. It is typically used to represent a snippet of code within the text of a document. The content of the <code> element is usually displayed in a monospaced (fixed-width) font.

Here's an example of how the <code> tag is used:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>HTML Code Tag Example</title>
</head>
<body>

    <p>In the following example, we use the <code>print</code> function to display a message:</p>

    <pre>
        <code>
            function greet() {
                print("Hello, world!");
            }
            greet();
        </code>
    </pre>

</body>
</html>

In this example:

  • The <code> element is used to mark the "print" function name.
  • The <pre> element is used to preserve whitespace and formatting within the code block.


The <code> tag is often used in conjunction with the <pre> tag to maintain the formatting of the code, especially when whitespace and line breaks are important.

While <code> is suitable for inline code snippets, if you have a larger block of code, consider using the <pre> tag to preserve line breaks and indentation. Additionally, for syntax highlighting and better code presentation, you might want to use external tools or libraries like Prism or highlight.js.