HTML Entities

Some characters have special meaning in HTML — like < and > which start and end tags. If you want to display these characters as text, you must use HTML entities.

What is an entity?

An HTML entity is a code that the browser converts to the actual character. It always starts with & and ends with ;.

<p>5 &lt; 10</p>    <!-- displays: 5 < 10 -->
<p>10 &gt; 5</p>    <!-- displays: 10 > 5 -->

Common entities

Numeric entities

Every entity can also be written as a numeric code using the Unicode code point:

<   is the same as <  or <
© is the same as © or ©

Use whichever form is clearest. Named entities like © are usually more readable.

Non-breaking space ( )

A regular space allows the browser to break a line there.   prevents the line break:

<!-- No line break between "100" and "km/h" -->
<p>The car travels at 100&nbsp;km/h.</p>

Also useful for adding extra spacing (though CSS is usually better for this).

Entities in code examples

If you're writing HTML tutorials and want to show <h1> literally on the page:

<p>The heading tag looks like this: &lt;h1&gt;Title&lt;/h1&gt;</p>

Displays as: The heading tag looks like this: <h1>Title</h1>