HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder
Escape HTML special characters to their entity equivalents for safe embedding in web pages, or decode HTML entities back to their original characters. Prevent XSS vulnerabilities and display raw HTML markup safely. All processing happens locally in your browser.
HTML Entity Encoder
Convert special characters to HTML entities for safe embedding in web pages.
HTML Entity Decoder
Convert HTML entities back to their original characters.
How It Works
HTML entities replace characters that have special meaning in HTML markup. The five key characters are: & becomes &, < becomes <, > becomes >, " becomes ", and ' becomes '.
When a browser encounters these entity sequences, it renders the original character instead of interpreting it as HTML markup. This is essential for displaying code snippets, user-generated content, or any text that might contain HTML-like syntax. The decoder reverses the process by parsing entity references back into their corresponding characters.
Common Use Cases
- XSS prevention: Sanitize user input before displaying it in web pages to prevent cross-site scripting attacks.
- Displaying code: Show HTML, XML, or JSX code snippets on a web page without the browser interpreting the tags.
- CMS and blog content: Safely embed special characters in content management systems that process HTML.
- Email templates: Ensure special characters render correctly across different email clients.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are HTML entities?
HTML entities are named or numbered references that represent characters in HTML. For example, < represents the < character. They allow you to display reserved HTML characters as text rather than having the browser interpret them as markup.
Why do I need to encode HTML?
To prevent browsers from interpreting special characters as HTML markup, which could break your page layout or create XSS security vulnerabilities. Encoding ensures user-generated content and code snippets are displayed safely.
What's the difference between named and numeric entities?
Named entities use a word (e.g., &), while numeric entities use a number (e.g., &). Both represent the same character. Named entities are more readable but fewer characters have named equivalents.
Does this encode all Unicode characters?
This tool encodes the five most critical HTML characters (&, <, >, ", '). Other Unicode characters are safe to include directly in UTF-8 encoded HTML documents without entity encoding.