HTML parsing issues in Visual Studio

Description lists (dl) and divs

Visual Studio (at least as of VS2019, not sure if fixed in VS2022) will state that invalid HTML is present when presented with a structure similar to the below. This will most visibly be identified by Visual Studio’s auto-indenting not working correctly and the code block being displayed with a wavy underline.

<dl>
  <div>
    <dt>Date</dt>
    <dd>22 September</dd>
  </div>
  <div>
    <dt>Location</dt>
    <dd>Bristol, UK</dd>
  </div>
</dl>

Older versions of the HTML specification only allowed dt and dd elements to be direct descendents of dl elements. This is no longer accurate, however, and div elements have also been allowed by the HTML spec since October 2016.