What's the difference between named and numeric entities?

Named entities use words (© for ©), numeric use numbers (©). Named are more readable but not available for all characters.

Do I need to encode all special characters?

At minimum, encode & and quotes inside attributes. Encoding prevents XSS and ensures characters display correctly.

HTML Entity Encoder/Decoder

Encode special characters to HTML entities or decode them back to text.

Plain Text

Encode →← Decode

HTML Entities

What are HTML Entities?

HTML entities are special sequences that represent characters which have meaning in HTML or can't be typed directly. They start with & and end with ;. For example, < represents < and & represents &. Essential for displaying code snippets, special symbols, and preventing XSS attacks.

Common HTML Entities

< → < (less than), > → > (greater than), & → & (ampersand), " → " (double quote), ' → ' (apostrophe), → non-breaking space, © → copyright, — → em dash, € → euro sign. Named entities are more readable; numeric entities (&#number;) work for any Unicode character.

When to Encode HTML Entities

When displaying user-generated content (prevents XSS attacks), when showing code examples in HTML, when using special characters in HTML attributes, when your text contains characters outside your document's encoding.

// JavaScript - Encode
function escapeHtml(text) {
  const div = document.createElement('div');
  div.textContent = text;
  return div.innerHTML;
}

// JavaScript - Decode
function unescapeHtml(html) {
  const div = document.createElement('div');
  div.innerHTML = html;
  return div.textContent;
}

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between named and numeric entities?: Named entities use words (© for ©), numeric entities use numbers (© or © for ©). Named entities are more readable but not available for all characters. Numeric entities work for any Unicode code point.
Do I need to encode all special characters?: At minimum, encode < > & and quotes inside attributes. Modern browsers handle most characters with UTF-8, but encoding is essential for characters that conflict with HTML syntax and for preventing XSS.

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