HTML Entities

What are HTML Entities

HTML entities are escape sequences used to represent special characters in HTML documents. Since characters like <, >, and & have syntactic meaning in HTML, using them directly would cause the browser to misinterpret them as tags or directives — entities provide a safe alternative.

Common Entity Reference

Why escape: Prevents the browser from parsing < > as tags; prevents XSS — always escape user input before inserting it into HTML.

React/Vue text nodes escape automatically; manual handling is needed when using innerHTML / dangerouslySetInnerHTML.

Common Use Cases

• XSS prevention: Encode all special characters in user input before server-side rendering
• Displaying code snippets: Show tag text like <div> in HTML without it being parsed as an actual element
• Email templates: Email HTML doesn't support all modern standards — entities ensure special characters render correctly
• CMS content output: Escape reserved characters from rich text editors before embedding them safely in pages

How to Use

1. Paste text containing special characters (to encode) or a string with HTML entities (to decode) in the input field
2. Select encode or decode mode — the tool automatically converts all relevant characters to their corresponding form
3. Copy the result and paste it directly into your HTML code

FAQ

What's the difference between named and numeric entities?

Named entities (e.g., &) are more readable but not every character has a named form. Numeric entities (e.g., &) cover all Unicode characters with broader compatibility. In production, use named entities for the 5 critical characters (<>&"').

Do I still need to manually escape in React/Vue?

When using JSX text nodes or template interpolation ({{ }}), the framework escapes automatically. However, content inserted via dangerouslySetInnerHTML or v-html is NOT auto-escaped — you must handle it manually or use a library like DOMPurify.

What's the difference between   and a regular space?

  (non-breaking space) won't be collapsed by the browser and prevents line breaks at that position. Regular spaces are collapsed — multiple consecutive spaces render as one. Use   when you need to preserve multiple spaces.