When do you use th:remove="tag" versus th:block?

Question

The following two blocks would evaluate the same, so when would you use th:remove="tag" over th:block?

<th:block th:text="${myBean.value}">[value]</th:block>

versus

<span th:remove="tag" th:text="${myBean.value}">[value]</span>

Answer 1

Since they can be used interchangeably I think it is opinion based... but for readability, my opinion is:

<th:block /> should be used for doing structural logic (th:if, th:each, etc..) and only when it's not possible on the parent tag. For example, in the case you have to contain more than one element in a loop -- e.g, a loop that produces 2 table rows for each object:

<table>
  <th:block th:each="object: ${objects}">
    <tr>
      <td th:text="${object.data1}" />
      <td th:text="${object.data2}" />
    </tr>
    
    <tr>
      <td th:text="${object.data3}" />
      <td th:text="${object.data4}" />
    </tr>
  </th:block>
<table>

th:remove should only be used for example data that should only be rendered when viewing the file in a browser/prototyping w/o rendering the thymeleaf:

<table>
  <th:block th:each="object: ${objects}">
    <tr>
      <td th:text="${object.data1}" />
      <td th:text="${object.data2}" />
    </tr>
    
    <tr>
      <td th:text="${object.data3}" />
      <td th:text="${object.data4}" />
    </tr>
  </th:block>
  
  <tr th:remove="all">
    <td>Mild Cinnamon</td>
    <td>1.99</td>
  </tr>
      
  <tr th:remove="all">
    <td>Other</td>
    <td>Data</td>
  </tr>
<table>

In the specific case where you want to output data/text without a tag, I prefer inline expressions. They're enabled by default in thymeleaf 3. So:

[[${myBean.value}]] instead of <th:block th:text="${myBean.value}">[value]</th:block>