HTML Entity Encoder & Decoder

How to Use the HTML Entity Encoder and Decoder

Select Encode or Decode mode, paste your HTML or encoded string, and the result appears instantly. The encoder converts characters like <, >, &, ", and ' into their HTML entity equivalents such as <, >, and &. The decoder reverses the process.

What Are HTML Entities

HTML entities are special codes that represent characters which have reserved meaning in HTML. Since browsers interpret < as the start of an HTML tag, you cannot simply include it as text without the browser attempting to render it as markup. HTML entities solve this by providing an alternative representation that browsers display as visible text.

There are two forms of HTML entities: named entities like & and numeric entities like &. Named entities are more readable, while numeric entities can represent any Unicode character including emoji and symbols from non-Latin scripts.

Essential HTML Entities Reference

Character	Named Entity	Numeric Entity	Description
<	&lt;	&#60;	Less than / tag open
>	&gt;	&#62;	Greater than / tag close
&	&amp;	&#38;	Ampersand
"	&quot;	&#34;	Double quote
'	&apos;	&#39;	Single quote / apostrophe
(space)	&nbsp;	&#160;	Non-breaking space
(c)	&copy;	&#169;	Copyright symbol

HTML Encoding for Security (XSS Prevention)

Cross-site scripting (XSS) is one of the most common web vulnerabilities. It occurs when an attacker injects malicious HTML or JavaScript into a web page, typically through user input fields. HTML entity encoding is the primary defense against stored and reflected XSS attacks.

Every piece of user-generated content that is rendered on a web page must be entity-encoded before insertion into the HTML document. This includes form submissions, URL parameters, database values, and any other data originating from outside your application. Without encoding, an attacker could inject a script tag that executes arbitrary JavaScript in other users’ browsers.

Where to Apply HTML Encoding

Encoding should happen at the point of output, not input. Store user data in its original form in your database, then encode it when rendering it in HTML. This approach preserves the original data for non-HTML contexts like API responses and email, while ensuring safe display on web pages.

Context matters when encoding. Content placed inside HTML tags requires HTML entity encoding. Content placed inside JavaScript strings, CSS values, or URL attributes requires different encoding strategies specific to those contexts.

Displaying Code Snippets on Web Pages

When you need to show HTML code examples on a web page, every angle bracket and ampersand in the code must be entity-encoded. This prevents the browser from interpreting the code as actual HTML. This tool makes it easy to encode code blocks before pasting them into your blog posts, documentation, or tutorials.

For converting entire documents between markup formats, the Markdown to HTML Converter can handle code blocks automatically. If you need to encode content for URLs instead of HTML, use the URL Encoder.

HTML Entities in Modern Web Development

Modern templating engines like React JSX, Vue templates, and Angular automatically encode dynamic content by default. However, you still need to manually encode content when using innerHTML, dangerouslySetInnerHTML, or v-html directives, as these bypass automatic encoding. Always encode user content before injecting it through these raw HTML insertion methods.

Related Tools

• URL Encoder/Decoder - Encode characters for URLs instead of HTML
• Base64 Encoder/Decoder - Encode binary data as text
• Markdown to HTML Converter - Convert markdown to properly encoded HTML