Question 1

What are HTML entities?

Accepted Answer

HTML entities are special codes used to represent characters that have meaning in HTML syntax or that are not easily typed. For example, & represents &, < represents <, and > represents >. They prevent browsers from misinterpreting special characters as HTML tags.

Question 2

When do I need to encode HTML entities?

Accepted Answer

You need to encode HTML entities when inserting user-supplied text into HTML to prevent XSS (cross-site scripting) attacks. Characters like <, >, &, and " must be encoded so browsers treat them as text, not HTML markup.

Question 3

What is the difference between & and &#38;?

Accepted Answer

& is a named entity reference for the ampersand character. &#38; is the same character expressed as a decimal numeric entity. &#x26; is the hexadecimal form. All three produce the same & character.

Question 4

What is  ?

Accepted Answer

is the HTML entity for a non-breaking space — a space character that prevents line breaks at that position. Unlike a regular space, browsers will not collapse multiple   entities into one.

HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder

HTML Entity Encoder

HTML Entity Decoder