What are HTML entities?
HTML entities are strings of characters used to display reserved characters (like < and >) or invisible characters in HTML documents. They start with an ampersand (&) and end with a semicolon (;).
Why do I need to encode HTML?
Encoding is crucial for security (preventing Cross-Site Scripting or XSS attacks) and to ensure that browsers interpret special characters as text rather than code.
Does this support emojis?
Yes! Emojis and other non-standard characters can be encoded into their numeric entity equivalents if you enable the "Encode Non-ASCII" option.
Is the conversion private?
Absolutely. All processing happens locally in your browser using JavaScript. No data is sent to our servers.
What characters are encoded?
By default, we encode the 5 standard XML special characters: <, >, &, ", and '. Enabling "Encode Non-ASCII" will also convert characters like ©, ®, and emojis.
What is the difference between Encode and Decode?
Encoding converts special characters into safe HTML entities (e.g., `<` becomes `<`). Decoding reverses this process, turning entities back into readable characters.
Can I encode invisible characters?
Yes, invisible characters like non-breaking spaces are converted to their entity equivalents (e.g., ` `).
Is this tool useful for developers?
Yes, it is essential for web developers to sanitize user input and prevent code injection vulnerabilities.
Does it support hex entities?
Currently, it defaults to named entities (like `©`) or decimal entities where named ones do not exist.
Is there a limit to text length?
No strict limit, but performance depends on your browser capabilities when processing very large blocks of text.