What Are HTML Entities and Why Use Them

 HTML Entities: What Are They?

HTML entities are special codes used to represent characters that have specific meanings or purposes in HTML. They help ensure that these characters are displayed correctly in web browsers and are not misinterpreted as part of the HTML markup.

Why Use HTML Entities?

Some characters have special meanings in HTML, like < and > for tags, and & to start an entity. Using HTML entities is important to prevent unintended interpretation of characters and to maintain the structure of your HTML.

Common HTML Entities:

• < - Represents the less-than symbol <.
• > - Represents the greater-than symbol >.
• & - Represents the ampersand &.
• " - Represents double quotation mark "
• ' - Represents apostrophe ' (less commonly used)

Examples:

• 3 < 5 is displayed as "3 < 5".
• Hello & Goodbye is displayed as "Hello & Goodbye".
• She said, "It's mine." is displayed as "She said, "It's mine." using ".

Non-Breaking Space:

•   - Represents a non-breaking space, which prevents line breaks between words.
• Useful for maintaining spacing in texts.

Special Symbols:

• © - Represents the copyright symbol ©.
• ® - Represents the registered trademark symbol ®.
• ™ - Represents the trademark symbol ™.

Accented Characters:

• é - Represents the letter é (e with acute accent).
• ö - Represents the letter ö (o with umlaut).

Using HTML Entities Safely:

• HTML entities are used to display characters without triggering unintended behavior.
• Useful for handling user-generated content and preventing cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

Remember:

• Not all characters need HTML entities. Most common characters can be used as-is in HTML.
• HTML entities should be used when a character has a special meaning or might be misinterpreted.

HTML entities are a fundamental aspect of HTML, helping ensure that text and characters are displayed correctly in various contexts and browsers.