HTML Class - Fall 2002
HTML Character Entities
Some characters like the < character, have a special meaning
in HTML, and therefore cannot be used in the text.
To display a less than sign (<) in HTML, we have to use a
character entity.
Character Entities
Some characters have a special meaning in HTML, like the less than sign
(<) that defines the start of an HTML tag. If we want the browser to actually
display these characters we must insert character entities in the HTML
source.
A character entity has three parts: an ampersand (&), an entity name or a
# and an entity number, and finally a semicolon (;).
To display a less than sign in an HTML document we must write:
< ; or <
The advantage of using a name instead of a number is that a name is easier to
remember. The disadvantage is that not all browsers support the newest entity
names, while the support for entity numbers is very good in almost all
browsers.
Note that the entities are case sensitive.
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 spaces to your text, use the
character entity.
The Most Common Character Entities:
Result |
Description |
Entity Name |
Entity Number |
|
non-breaking space |
|
  |
< |
less than |
< |
< |
> |
greater than |
> |
> |
& |
ampersand |
& |
& |
" |
quotation mark |
" |
" |
' |
apostrophe |
|
' |
Some Other Commonly Used Character Entities:
Result |
Description |
Entity Name |
Entity Number |
¢ |
cent |
¢ |
¢ |
£ |
pound |
£ |
£ |
¥ |
yen |
¥ |
¥ |
§ |
section |
§ |
§ |
© |
copyright |
© |
© |
® |
registered trademark |
® |
® |
× |
multiplication |
× |
× |
÷ |
division |
÷ |
÷ |
|