A JSP scripting element containing any code fragment that is valid in the scripting language used in the JSP page. The JSP specification describes what is a valid scriptlet for the case where the language page attribute is “java”.

In advanced Java, a JSP scriptlet is a block of Java code embedded within the HTML or XML code in a JavaServer Pages (JSP) file. It is enclosed within <% and %> tags.

Here’s an example:

jsp

<%

// Java code goes here

String message = "Hello, World!";

out.println(message);

%>

The code inside the scriptlet is executed when the JSP page is processed by the server. However, using scriptlets in JSP is generally considered bad practice because it can lead to mixing business logic with presentation, making the code less maintainable. Instead, modern best practices recommend using JSP expressions, declarations, and custom tags to separate concerns and improve code readability.