What are the entities in html with example?


Reserved characters in HTML must be replaced with character entities.


HTML Entities

Some characters are reserved in HTML.

If you use the less than (<) or greater than (>) signs in your text, the browser might mix them with tags.

Character entities are used to display reserved characters in HTML.

A character entity looks like this:

&entity_name;

OR

&#entity_number;

To display a less than sign (<) we must write: < or <

Advantage of using an entity name: An entity name is easy to remember.
Disadvantage of using an entity name: Browsers may not support all entity names, but the support for entity numbers is good.


Non-breaking Space

A commonly used entity in HTML is the non-breaking space:  

A non-breaking space is a space that will not break into a new line.

Two words separated by a non-breaking space will stick together (not break into a new line). This is handy when breaking the words might be disruptive.

Examples:

  • § 10
  • 10 km/h
  • 10 PM

Another common use of the non-breaking space is to prevent browsers from truncating spaces in HTML pages.

If you write 10 spaces in your text, the browser will remove 9 of them. To add real spaces to your text, you can use the   character entity.

Tip: The non-breaking hyphen (‑) is used to define a hyphen character (‑) that does not break into a new line.



Some Useful HTML Character Entities

ResultDescriptionEntity NameEntity NumberTry it
non-breaking space     Try it »
< less than < < Try it »
> greater than > > Try it »
& ampersand & & Try it »
" double quotation mark " " Try it »
' single quotation mark (apostrophe) ' ' Try it »
¢ cent ¢ ¢ Try it »
£ pound £ £ Try it »
¥ yen ¥ ¥ Try it »
euro Try it »
© copyright © © Try it »
® registered trademark ® ® Try it »

Note: Entity names are case sensitive.


Combining Diacritical Marks

A diacritical mark is a "glyph" added to a letter.

Some diacritical marks, like grave (  ̀) and acute (  ́) are called accents.

Diacritical marks can appear both above and below a letter, inside a letter, and between two letters.

Diacritical marks can be used in combination with alphanumeric characters to produce a character that is not present in the character set (encoding) used in the page.

Here are some examples:

MarkCharacterConstructResultTry it
 ̀ a Try it »
 ́ a Try it »
̂ a Try it »
 ̃ a Try it »
 ̀ O Try it »
 ́ O Try it »
̂ O Try it »
 ̃ O Try it »

You will see more HTML symbols in the next chapter of this tutorial.



An HTML entity is a piece of text ("string") that begins with an ampersand (&) and ends with a semicolon (;). Entities are frequently used to display reserved characters (which would otherwise be interpreted as HTML code), and invisible characters (like non-breaking spaces). You can also use them in place of other characters that are difficult to type with a standard keyboard.

Note: Many characters have memorable entities. For example, the entity for the copyright symbol (©) is ©. For less memorable characters, such as or , you can use a reference chart or decoder tool.

Reserved characters

Some special characters are reserved for use in HTML, meaning that your browser will parse them as HTML code. For example, if you use the less-than (<) sign, the browser interprets any text that follows as a tag.

To display these characters as text, replace them with their corresponding character entities, as shown in the following table.

See also

What are entities tag?

An entity tag (ETag) is an HTTP header used for Web cache validation and conditional requests from browsers for resources. Etags use persistent identification elements (PIE) that have been tagged to the user's browser.

What are the five character entities?

What is character entities in HTML ?.

What are character entities in HTML used for?

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 ( ; ).

What is a named entity in HTML?

The named character entities in this section produce characters that may be represented by glyphs in the widely available Adobe Symbol font, including Greek characters, various bracketing symbols, and a selection of mathematical operators such as gradient, product, and summation symbols.