HTML Character Entities
Reserved characters in HTML must be replaced with character
entities.
Character Entities
Some characters are reserved in HTML. For example, you cannot use the greater
than or less than signs within your text because the browser could mistake them
for markup.
If we want the browser to actually display
these characters we must insert character entities in the HTML
source.
A character entity looks like this: &entity_name; OR &#entity_number;
To display a less than sign we must write: < or <
The advantage of using an entity name instead of a number is that the name
often is easier to remember. However, the disadvantage is that browsers may not support
all entity names (while the support for entity numbers is very
good).
Non-breaking Space
The most common character entity in HTML is the non-breaking space.
Normally HTML will truncate spaces in your text. If you write 10 spaces in
your text HTML will remove 9 of them. To add lots of spaces to your text, use the
character entity.
Commonly Used Character Entities
Note Entity names are case sensitive!
Result |
Description |
Entity Name |
Entity Number |
|
non-breaking space |
|
  |
< |
less than |
< |
< |
> |
greater than |
> |
> |
& |
ampersand |
& |
& |
¢ |
cent |
¢ |
¢ |
£ |
pound |
£ |
£ |
¥ |
yen |
¥ |
¥ |
€ |
euro |
€ |
€ |
§ |
section |
§ |
§ |
© |
copyright |
© |
© |
® |
registered trademark |
® |
® |
For a complete reference of all character entities, visit this link HTML
Entities Reference.
|