HTML Entities: Named and Numeric References
Named entities are readable
A named HTML entity such as © starts with an ampersand, uses a name, and ends with a semicolon. Browsers decode it into the copyright sign.
Common names include & for ampersand, < for less-than, > for greater-than, " for double quote, and for non-breaking space.
Numeric entities use code points
Decimal numeric entities use © and hexadecimal numeric entities use ©. Both encode the same copyright sign as ©.
Numeric entities work for any Unicode character, while named entities only exist for the names defined in the HTML standard.
When escaping matters
Escape the ampersand, less-than, greater-than, quotes, and apostrophe when embedding untrusted text in HTML. The entity encoder tool applies these rules automatically.
For characters without a named entity, use the hexadecimal numeric form so the intent stays visible in source code.