HTML Entities
What Are HTML Entities?
HTML entities are special codes used to represent characters that either can’t be typed directly or have special meaning in HTML syntax. These characters can be things like symbols, mathematical signs, or letters with accents that would otherwise interfere with your web page’s markup. By using an HTML entity, you ensure that the characters display correctly, no matter what browser or device is viewing the page.
How Does HTML Entities Work?
An HTML entity starts with an ampersand (&) and ends with a semicolon (;). Between the ampersand and semicolon, you can either use a named entity (like © for the copyright symbol) or a numeric entity (like © for the same symbol). Both are interpreted by browsers and rendered as the corresponding character.
For example:
- Named Entity:
©– This represents the copyright symbol (©). - Numeric Entity:
©– This also represents the copyright symbol (©), but it’s written as a number.
Common HTML Entities
There are many HTML entities for various symbols, punctuation marks, and even non-English characters. Below are some of the most commonly used HTML entities:
- <: Less-than sign (
<) - >: Greater-than sign (
>) - &: Ampersand (
&) - “: Quotation mark (
") - ©: Copyright symbol (©)
- ®: Registered trademark symbol (®)
- €: Euro currency symbol (€)
- ¥: Yen currency symbol (¥)
- <: Less-than symbol (
<) - >: Greater-than symbol (
>)
These are just a few examples, but there are hundreds of HTML entities, ranging from basic punctuation marks to mathematical symbols and accented letters.
Why Should You Use HTML Entities?
You might wonder why we don’t just type the character directly. While it is perfectly fine to include most characters directly in your HTML, certain symbols, such as <, >, or &, are reserved in HTML for special purposes. For example, the less-than symbol (<) is used to start HTML tags, and the ampersand (&) is used to start an HTML entity itself. If you type these characters directly into your code, the browser might get confused and misinterpret them.
By using HTML entities, we prevent this confusion and ensure that everything displays correctly.
Using HTML Entities in Your Code
Using HTML entities is straightforward. Just replace any special character with its corresponding entity name or numeric code. Here’s an example:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>HTML Entities Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Common Symbols</h1>
<p>© 2024 Your Website1</p>
<p>HTML is a markup language used to structure web pages & display content.</p>
<p>Here is a mathematical symbol: > and <</p>
</body>
</html>
In this example:
©is used to represent the copyright symbol (©).&is used to display the ampersand (&) without breaking the HTML syntax.>and<are used for the greater-than (>) and less-than (<) symbols.
Numeric vs. Named HTML Entities
You may have noticed that there are two ways to write an HTML entity: numeric and named. Both have the same result, but they serve different purposes.
- Named Entities: These are more human-readable and easier to remember. For example,
©is much more intuitive than©. However, not every character has a named entity. - Numeric Entities: These are often used when a named entity is not available. They are based on the Unicode value of the character. For instance, the copyright symbol (©) can be written as either
©or©, both of which represent the same character.
Here’s an example of using numeric entities:
<p>© 2024 Your Company Name</p>
In this case, © represents the copyright symbol, just like ©.
When should Use HTML Entities
In practice, you should use HTML entities when:
- You need to display characters that are reserved in HTML, such as
<,>, or&. - You’re working with symbols or characters that aren’t easily typed on a standard keyboard, like currency signs (€, £, ¥) or mathematical symbols (±, ÷).
- You need to display characters from other languages that may not be part of the basic ASCII character set.