What are HTML entities?

HTML entities are special character sequences that begin with an ampersand (&) and end with a semicolon (;). They're used to display characters that have special meaning in HTML or characters that aren't readily available on a standard keyboard. For example, &lt; represents the less-than sign (<), &copy; represents the copyright symbol (©), and &nbsp; represents a non-breaking space. HTML entities ensure that browsers display these characters correctly instead of interpreting them as HTML code.

Tool description

The HTML Entities Encoder is a bidirectional converter that transforms text between its plain form and HTML entity representation. It can encode special characters into their HTML entity equivalents (like converting < to <) and decode HTML entities back into readable characters (like converting © to ©).

Features

  • Encode to HTML entities: Convert special characters to their HTML entity equivalents
  • Decode HTML entities: Transform HTML entities back to their original characters
  • Bidirectional conversion: Switch between encoded and decoded formats with ease
  • Real-time conversion: See results instantly as you type
  • Copy functionality: Easily copy converted text to clipboard

Use Cases

  • Web development: Safely display user-generated content without breaking HTML structure
  • Content management: Store text with special characters in databases
  • Email templates: Ensure special characters render correctly across different email clients
  • API responses: Encode data to prevent injection attacks
  • Documentation: Display code examples with HTML tags without them being interpreted as markup
  • SEO optimization: Handle special characters in meta tags and structured data