Character encodings in HTML: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:53, 10 March 2003

Revision as of 18:03, 10 March 2003

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Many symbolic character entities have been defined. For example, the character '&lambda;' can be encoded as <code>&amp;lambda;</code>. This use of the '&' character as an [[escape code]] for character entities means that literal '&' characters in HTML need to be encoded as an entity themselves, as <code>&amp;amp;</code>. Similar escapes are required for the '<' and '>' characters, encoded as <code>&amp;lt;</code> and <code>&amp;gt;</code> respectively.

Decimal and hexadecimal HTML entities can also be used, based on the [[Unicode]] numeric code for the character encoded. For example, &lambda; can also be represented as a decimal-coded entity as <code>&amp;#955;</code>.

Note that use of HTML characters encodings may significantly reduce the readability of HTML: One is thus encouraged to refrain from using this coding when not necessary. In particular, texts in many European languages tend to become almost unreadable in HTML source form. As the acceptance of [[ISO 8859-1]] has prograssed, use of the special characters encodings should be reserved for special cases. The characters '''&amp;''', '''&lt;''' and '''&gt;''' always need to be encoded, as noted above.