HTML - Entities

HTML Entities are used to represent characters that are reserved in HTML or have special meanings. This can also used to display characters that are not available on a standard keyboard. Entities start with ampersand(`&`) and end with semi column(`;`).

For Example:

> (greater than) = >
< (less than) = <

HTML Character Entities Name and Code

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.

We can use entity names or entity numbers to display reserved HTML characters, ie to display a less than sign (<) we must write: < or <

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	<	<
>	greater-than	>	>

HTML Non Breaking Spaces Name and Code

In HTML, You can add spaces between elements and texts using `&nbsp` entity. Unlike space given from space bar this space will not break into new line.

Two words that are separated by `&nbsp` will stick together even at the end of line.
If you write 5 spaces in your text using space bar, the browser will only add 1 space. To add real spaces to your text, you can use the `&nbsp` character entity.

Example of HTML Entities

Let's look into the following example we are displaying some character entities and the escape symbols in code.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>HTML Character Entities</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>HTML Character Entities</h1>
<table>
      <tr>
         <th>Symbol</th>
         <th>Entity</th>
      </tr>
      <tr>
         <td>"</td>
         <td>&amp;quot;</td>
      </tr>
         <tr>
         <td>&</td>
         <td>&amp;amp;</td>
      </tr>
      </tr>
         <tr>
         <td>'</td>
         <td>&amp;apos;</td>
      </tr>
</table>
This is &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; example of 
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &amp;nbsp; character
</body>
</html>

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 Name and Code

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

Result	Description	Entity Name	Number Code
	non-breaking space
¡	inverted exclamation mark	¡	¡
¤	currency	¤	¤
¢	cent	¢	¢
£	pound	£	£
¥	yen	¥	¥
¦	broken vertical bar	¦	¦
§	section	§	§
¨	spacing diaeresis	¨	¨
©	copyright	©	©
ª	feminine ordinal indicator	ª	ª
«	angle quotation mark (left)	«	«
¬	negation	¬	¬
	soft hyphen
®	registered trademark	®	®
™	trademark	™	™
¯	spacing macron	¯	¯
°	degree	°	°
±	plus-or-minus	±	±
²	superscript 2	²	²
³	superscript 3	³	³
´	spacing acute	´	´
µ	micro	µ	µ
¶	paragraph	¶	¶
·	middle dot	·	·
¸	spacing cedilla	¸	¸
¹	superscript 1	¹	¹
º	masculine ordinal indicator	º	º
»	angle quotation mark (right)	»	»
¼	fraction 1/4	¼	¼
½	fraction 1/2	½	½
¾	fraction 3/4	¾	¾
¿	inverted question mark	¿	¿
×	multiplication	×	×
÷	division	÷	÷

ISO 8859-1 Character Entities Name and Code

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	À	À
Á	capital a, acute accent	Á	Á
Â	capital a, circumflex accent	Â	Â
Ã	capital a, tilde	Ã	Ã
Ä	capital a, umlaut mark	Ä	Ä
Å	capital a, ring	Å	Å
Æ	capital ae	Æ	Æ
Ç	capital c, cedilla	Ç	Ç
È	capital e, grave accent	È	È
É	capital e, acute accent	É	É
Ê	capital e, circumflex accent	Ê	Ê
Ë	capital e, umlaut mark	Ë	Ë
Ì	capital i, grave accent	Ì	Ì
Í	capital i, acute accent	Í	Í
Î	capital i, circumflex accent	Î	Î
Ï	capital i, umlaut mark	Ï	Ï
Ð	capital eth, Icelandic	Ð	Ð
Ñ	capital n, tilde	Ñ	Ñ
Ò	capital o, grave accent	Ò	Ò
Ó	capital o, acute accent	Ó	Ó
Ô	capital o, circumflex accent	Ô	Ô
Õ	capital o, tilde	Õ	Õ
Ö	capital o, umlaut mark	Ö	Ö
Ø	capital o, slash	Ø	Ø
Ù	capital u, grave accent	Ù	Ù
Ú	capital u, acute accent	Ú	Ú
Û	capital u, circumflex accent	Û	Û
Ü	capital u, umlaut mark	Ü	Ü
Ý	capital y, acute accent	Ý	Ý
Þ	capital THORN, Icelandic	Þ	Þ
ß	small sharp s, German	ß	ß
à	small a, grave accent	à	à
á	small a, acute accent	á	á
â	small a, circumflex accent	â	â
ã	small a, tilde	ã	ã
ä	small a, umlaut mark	ä	ä
å	small a, ring	å	å
æ	small ae	æ	æ
ç	small c, cedilla	ç	ç
è	small e, grave accent	è	è
é	small e, acute accent	é	é
ê	small e, circumflex accent	ê	ê
ë	small e, umlaut mark	ë	ë
ì	small i, grave accent	ì	ì
í	small i, acute accent	í	í
î	small i, circumflex accent	î	î
ï	small i, umlaut mark	ï	ï
ð	small eth, Icelandic	ð	ð
ñ	small n, tilde	ñ	ñ
ò	small o, grave accent	ò	ò
ó	small o, acute accent	ó	ó
ô	small o, circumflex accent	ô	ô
õ	small o, tilde	õ	õ
ö	small o, umlaut mark	ö	ö
ø	small o, slash	ø	ø
ù	small u, grave accent	ù	ù
ú	small u, acute accent	ú	ú
û	small u, circumflex accent	û	û
ü	small u, umlaut mark	ü	ü
ý	small y, acute accent	ý	ý
þ	small thorn, Icelandic	þ	þ
ÿ	small y, umlaut mark	ÿ	ÿ

Other Entities Supported by Browsers

Following are the other Entities that are supported by browsers:

Result	Description	Entity Name	Number Code
Œ	capital ligature OE	&OElig;	Œ
œ	small ligature oe	&oelig;	œ
Š	capital S with caron	&Scaron;	Š
š	small S with caron	&scaron;	š
Ÿ	capital Y with diaeres	&Yuml;	Ÿ
ˆ	modifier letter circumflex accent	&circ;	ˆ
˜	small tilde	&tilde;	˜
	en space	&ensp;
	em space	&emsp;
	thin space
‌	zero width non-joiner	&zwnj;	‌
‍	zero width joiner	&zwj;	‍
‎	left-to-right mark	&lrm;	‎
‏	right-to-left mark	&rlm;	‏
–	en dash	–	–
—	em dash	—	—
‘	left single quotation mark	‘	‘
’	right single quotation mark	’	’
‚	single low-9 quotation mark	&sbquo;	‚
“	left double quotation mark	“	“
”	right double quotation mark	”	”
„	double low-9 quotation mark	&bdquo;	„
†	dagger	&dagger;	†
‡	double dagger	&Dagger;	‡
…	horizontal ellipsis	…	…
‰	per mille	&permil;	‰
‹	single left-pointing angle quotation	&lsaquo;	‹
›	single right-pointing angle quotation	&rsaquo;	›
€	euro	€	€

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