Magento2: What is the difference between referenceContainer and reference? [duplicate]

Question

I found some xml layout files that uses reference container and only reference. What is the difference between the two?

Answer 1

<reference> is from Magento 1 and is not included in Magento 2, so if you are seeing this it must be left over code from a Magento 1 conversion. This seems to get ignored in Magento 2.

For more info on Magento 1's <reference> read this.

And for info on Magento 2's <referenceBlock> and <referenceContainer> read this.