HTML - Entities

Some characters are reserved in HTML and they have special meaning when used in HTML document. For example, you cannot use the greater than and less than signs or angle brackets within your HTML text because the browser will treat them differently and will try to draw a meaning related to HTML tag.

HTML processors must support following five special characters listed in the table that follows.

Symbol Description Entity Name Number Code
" quotation mark " "
' apostrophe  ' '
& ampersand & &
< less-than &lt; &#60;
> greater-than &gt; &#62;

Example

Let's look into the following example, where we are going to write <div id = "character"> as a code

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
   <title>HTML Entities</title>
</head>
<body> <div id = "character"> </body>
</html>

When we run the above code it will generate an output consisting of text displayed on the webpage.

There is also a long list of special characters in HTML 4.0. In order for these to appear in your document, you can use either the numerical codes or the entity names. For example, to insert a copyright symbol you can use either of the following −

&copy; 2007
or
&#169; 2007

ISO 8859-1 Symbol Entities

Following are the ISO 8859-1 Symbol Entities that are listed below −

Result Description Entity Name Number Code
  non-breaking space &nbsp; &#160;
¡ inverted exclamation mark &iexcl; &#161;
¤ currency &curren; &#164;
¢ cent &cent; &#162;
£ pound &pound; &#163;
¥ yen &yen; &#165;
¦ broken vertical bar &brvbar; &#166;
§ section &sect; &#167;
¨ spacing diaeresis &uml; &#168;
© copyright &copy; &#169;
ª feminine ordinal indicator &ordf; &#170;
« angle quotation mark (left) &laquo; &#171;
¬ negation &not; &#172;
­ soft hyphen &shy; &#173;
® registered trademark &reg; &#174;
™ trademark &trade; &#8482;
¯ spacing macron &macr; &#175;
° degree &deg; &#176;
± plus-or-minus  &plusmn; &#177;
² superscript 2 &sup2; &#178;
³ superscript 3 &sup3; &#179;
´ spacing acute &acute; &#180;
µ micro &micro; &#181;
paragraph &para; &#182;
· middle dot &middot; &#183;
¸ spacing cedilla &cedil; &#184;
¹ superscript 1 &sup1; &#185;
º masculine ordinal indicator &ordm; &#186;
» angle quotation mark (right) &raquo; &#187;
¼ fraction 1/4 &frac14; &#188;
½ fraction 1/2 &frac12; &#189;
¾ fraction 3/4 &frac34; &#190;
¿ inverted question mark &iquest; &#191;
× multiplication &times; &#215;
÷ division &divide; &#247;

ISO 8859-1 Character Entities

Let's look into the ISO 8859-1 Character Entities that are listed below −

Result Description Entity Name Number Code
À capital a, grave accent &Agrave; &#192;
Á capital a, acute accent &Aacute; &#193;
 capital a, circumflex accent &Acirc; &#194;
à capital a, tilde &Atilde; &#195;
Ä capital a, umlaut mark &Auml; &#196;
Å capital a, ring &Aring; &#197;
Æ capital ae &AElig; &#198;
Ç capital c, cedilla &Ccedil; &#199;
È capital e, grave accent &Egrave; &#200;
É capital e, acute accent &Eacute; &#201;
Ê capital e, circumflex accent &Ecirc; &#202;
Ë capital e, umlaut mark &Euml; &#203;
Ì capital i, grave accent &Igrave; &#204;
Í capital i, acute accent &Iacute; &#205;
Î capital i, circumflex accent &Icirc; &#206;
Ï capital i, umlaut mark &Iuml; &#207;
Ð capital eth, Icelandic &ETH; &#208;
Ñ capital n, tilde &Ntilde; &#209;
Ò capital o, grave accent &Ograve; &#210;
Ó capital o, acute accent &Oacute; &#211;
Ô capital o, circumflex accent &Ocirc; &#212;
Õ capital o, tilde &Otilde; &#213;
Ö capital o, umlaut mark &Ouml; &#214;
Ø capital o, slash &Oslash; &#216;
Ù capital u, grave accent &Ugrave; &#217;
Ú capital u, acute accent &Uacute; &#218;
Û capital u, circumflex accent &Ucirc; &#219;
Ü capital u, umlaut mark &Uuml; &#220;
Ý capital y, acute accent &Yacute; &#221;
Þ capital THORN, Icelandic &THORN; &#222;
ß small sharp s, German &szlig; &#223;
à small a, grave accent &agrave; &#224;
á small a, acute accent &aacute; &#225;
â small a, circumflex accent &acirc; &#226;
ã small a, tilde &atilde; &#227;
ä small a, umlaut mark &auml; &#228;
å small a, ring &aring; &#229;
æ small ae &aelig; &#230;
ç small c, cedilla &ccedil; &#231;
è small e, grave accent &egrave; &#232;
é small e, acute accent &eacute; &#233;
ê small e, circumflex accent &ecirc; &#234;
ë small e, umlaut mark &euml; &#235;
ì small i, grave accent &igrave; &#236;
í small i, acute accent &iacute; &#237;
î small i, circumflex accent &icirc; &#238;
ï small i, umlaut mark &iuml; &#239;
ð small eth, Icelandic &eth; &#240;
ñ small n, tilde &ntilde; &#241;
ò small o, grave accent &ograve; &#242;
ó small o, acute accent &oacute; &#243;
ô small o, circumflex accent &ocirc; &#244;
õ small o, tilde &otilde; &#245;
ö small o, umlaut mark &ouml; &#246;
ø small o, slash &oslash; &#248;
ù small u, grave accent &ugrave; &#249;
ú small u, acute accent &uacute; &#250;
û small u, circumflex accent &ucirc; &#251;
ü small u, umlaut mark &uuml; &#252;
ý small y, acute accent &yacute; &#253;
þ small thorn, Icelandic &thorn; &#254;
ÿ small y, umlaut mark &yuml; &#255;

Other Entities Supported by HTML Browsers

Following are the other Entities that are supported by HTML browsers that are listed below −

Result Description Entity Name Number Code
Πcapital ligature OE &OElig; &#338;
œ small ligature oe &oelig; &#339;
Š capital S with caron &Scaron; &#352;
š small S with caron &scaron; &#353;
Ÿ capital Y with diaeres &Yuml; &#376;
ˆ modifier letter circumflex accent &circ; &#710;
˜ small tilde &tilde; &#732;
  en space &ensp; &#8194;
  em space &emsp; &#8195;
  thin space &thinsp; &#8201;
‌ zero width non-joiner &zwnj; &#8204;
‍ zero width joiner &zwj; &#8205;
‎ left-to-right mark &lrm; &#8206;
‏ right-to-left mark &rlm; &#8207;
– en dash &ndash; &#8211;
— em dash &mdash; &#8212;
‘ left single quotation mark &lsquo; &#8216;
’ right single quotation mark &rsquo; &#8217;
‚ single low-9 quotation mark &sbquo; &#8218;
“ left double quotation mark &ldquo; &#8220;
” right double quotation mark &rdquo; &#8221;
„ double low-9 quotation mark &bdquo; &#8222;
† dagger &dagger; &#8224;
‡ double dagger &Dagger; &#8225;
… horizontal ellipsis &hellip; &#8230;
‰ per mille  &permil; &#8240;
‹ single left-pointing angle quotation &lsaquo; &#8249;
› single right-pointing angle quotation &rsaquo; &#8250;
€ euro &euro; &#8364;
Advertisements