About html entity lookup
HTML entities are codes that represent characters which are special in HTML or hard to type, such as © for © and & for &.
When you need them
- Showing characters like < and > in a page without breaking the markup.
- Typing symbols such as ©, €, ™ and arrows.
- Using a non-breaking space ( ) to keep words together.
Three forms
A named entity such as €, a decimal code such as € and a hex code such as € all produce €.
A worked example
To show the text 5 < 10 safely in a web page, write 5 < 10. A copyright line is © 2026, which shows © 2026. A non-breaking space ( ) keeps ₹ and the number on the same line.
When to use entities
- Always for < and & inside text.
- For quotes inside attribute values.
- With UTF-8 pages you can often type symbols directly instead.
