Google Optimizer code, validation and cdata

Question

I ran my site through the W3C validator, and a bunch of errors were caused by the Google Website Optimizer javascript.

It seems weird that would happen. If I put CDATA around it, the error go away. I assume that the code will still work?

So, I'm wondering if there's ever a time it's bad to put CDATA around javascript? and Why would Google's javascript snippets not validate in the first place?

Answer 1

It probably has to do with the doctype. I suspect you're using XHTML. JavaScript Contains Characters Which Can Not Exist in XHTML. Raw < and & characters are not allowed except inside of CDATA Sections. See this page for more.