HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder

About the HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder

In HTML, characters such as <, > and & have special meaning. If you want to show them as text, for example when publishing code snippets in a blog post, they must be written as HTML entities like < and &. The HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder converts them automatically.

Encoding user-supplied content is also a key defense against cross-site scripting (XSS). Enable Encode all non-ASCII characters to convert emojis and international letters into numeric entities for systems that only support ASCII. Decode mode understands named entities (like © and  ), decimal and hexadecimal numeric entities.

Examples: when you need HTML entities

Suppose you want to show this line of code in a blog post:

<p class="note">Tom & Jerry</p>

If you paste it as is, the browser treats it as a real paragraph and the tags disappear. Encoded, it looks like this in your HTML source:

<p class="note">Tom & Jerry</p>

and readers see the original code exactly.

Common entities worth remembering

• < and > for < and >
• & for &
• " for a double quote inside attributes
•   for a space that never breaks, for example between a number and its unit: 10&nbsp;kg
• © for ©

Typical uses

Writing tutorials, showing code in documentation, putting special characters into email templates, and cleaning up text that arrives full of entities from a database or an RSS feed (decode mode turns ' back into an apostrophe).

How to use the HTML Entity Encoder / Decoder

1. Choose Encode or Decode.
2. Paste your HTML or entity-encoded text.
3. Optionally encode all non-ASCII characters.
4. Copy the output.

Frequently asked questions