An HTML entity is used to display invisible characters and reserved characters that would otherwise be interpreted as HTML code. It is a piece of text, or string, that begins with an ampersand (&
) and ends with a semicolon (;
).
Typically, HTML will interpret the less-than sign (<
) as a tag. If you would like to have the less-than sign as text, HTML allows you to write <
, as seen from the example above.
Generally, you don’t need to use HTML entities if your editor supports Unicode. For some instances, entities can be useful:
Your editor does not support Unicode.
Your keyboard does not support the character you would like to type, such as em-dash or the copyright symbol.
You want specific HTML-specific characters like <
, &
, or "
.
- non-breaking space
<
- less than sign
>
- greater than sign
&
- ampersand (&
)
"
- double quotation mark
'
- single quotation mark
¢
- cent sign
£
- pound sign
¥
- yen sign
€
- euro sign
©
- copyright
®
- registered trademark