Question 1

What are HTML entities?

Accepted Answer

HTML entities are special sequences used to represent reserved characters in HTML. For example, < represents < and & represents &. They prevent browsers from interpreting these characters as HTML markup.

Question 2

What is the difference between named and numeric HTML entities?

Accepted Answer

Named entities use descriptive names like & or <. Numeric entities use decimal (&#38;) or hexadecimal (&#x26;) codes. Named entities are more readable; numeric entities can represent any Unicode character.

Question 3

When should I encode HTML entities?

Accepted Answer

Encode HTML entities when displaying user-generated content, embedding code snippets in HTML, or writing characters like <, >, &, quotes, and non-ASCII symbols that have special meaning in HTML.

Question 4

Is this tool secure for sensitive data?

Accepted Answer

Yes, all encoding and decoding happens entirely in your browser. No data is sent to any server.

Question 5

Can I encode non-ASCII characters?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Characters like ©, é, Chinese characters, emojis, and any Unicode symbol can be encoded to numeric HTML entities (decimal or hexadecimal).

Question 6

What encoding modes are available?

Accepted Answer

The tool supports Named entities (&), Decimal entities (&#38;), and Hexadecimal entities (&#x26;). You can also decode any of these formats back to plain text.

Question 7

Does this tool handle nested entities?

Accepted Answer

The decoder handles single-level entities correctly. Double-encoded entities like &amp; will decode to & in one pass. Run decode again if you need to fully resolve nested encoding.

Question 8

What is the HTML5 entity list?

Accepted Answer

HTML5 defines over 2000 named entities covering common symbols, mathematical operators, Greek letters, arrows, and more. This tool covers the most commonly used ones plus supports any character via numeric encoding.

Character	Named	Decimal	Hex	Description
&	&	&	&	Ampersand
<	<	<	<	Less than
>	>	>	>	Greater than
"	"	"	"	Double quote
'	'	'	'	Single quote
©	©	©	©	Copyright
®	®	®	®	Registered
				Non-breaking space

HTML Entity Encoder/Decoder

Common HTML Entity Reference

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