It is possible to define an anchor without text? I. e. without inline text.
<p>some text <a name="anchor47"></a> and further text</p>
I don't find any information in the standard. Usually I would write my HTML as
<p>some <a name="anchor47">text</a> and further text</p>
I just wanted to be sure that my code is accepted by all browsers and check programs...
One check program I used successfully (that means it does not complain if "empty" anchors are there) is that of w3
It's valid, but you could also add a blank space like:
<p>some text <a name="anchor47"> </a> and further text</p>
or you can add text and set the font-size to 0
<p>some text <a name="anchor47" style="font-size:0">anchors away!</a> and further text</p>
I believe there is a benefit to adding some descriptive text in there and hiding it for screen readers. See here for info on accessibility + anchor links.
However, I believe you should be using an alternative method like adding an ID to a span, h3 tag, etc.
<h3 id="anchor">Do you know how to tie an anchor knot?</h3>
And your link:
<a href="#anchor">Tie an Anchor Knot</a>