Very Short Question and Answers - Character Entities

We need character entities in HTML to display reserved symbols (like <, >, &$$, invisible spacing, special symbols, or characters that HTML otherwise uses for its own syntax.

Typing < or > directly in HTML can make the browser think you are beginning or ending a tag, rather than displaying the symbol, which can break the HTML structure.

By using the entity &lt;, or numeric entities &#60; or &#x3C;.

The ampersand is displayed with &amp;, or numerically as &#38; or &#x26;.

The entity is &nbsp; and it is used to prevent automatic line breaks or collapsing of multiple spaces.

Use the entity &quot; or the numeric entity &#34; if you need a double quote inside an attribute value.

Use the numeric entity &#8377; or the hexadecimal entity &#x20B9; for the rupee symbol.

The named entity is &copy;.

It is better to use CSS for spacing and layout as   is intended for preventing word breaks and not page design.

Write it as: If x &lt; y &amp; y &lt; z.

You can use &apos;, but the safest is the numeric entity &#39; as &apos; wasn't supported in older HTML versions.

Named entities like &copy; are easy to remember and write, but numeric entities (like &#169; or &#xA9;) can encode any Unicode character even if there's no named form.

It will display as: Marks: 98/100, with a space that does not collapse or allow a line break.

You must always escape <, >, and & even with UTF-8, because they are HTML syntax characters.

Use &euro; to write the euro symbol.

Use <meta charset="UTF-8" />.

Use: Price: &#8377; 499 &mdash; Limited offer!

Use &ndash;, which displays –.

<p title='He said &quot;Hello&quot; to me'>Hover me</p>

Character entities in attributes prevent conflicts or errors when special characters like quotes are needed inside attribute values.