HTML Entity Decode
JavascriptJqueryHtmlJavascript Problem Overview
How do I encode and decode HTML entities using JavaScript or JQuery?
var varTitle = "Chris' corner";
I want it to be:
var varTitle = "Chris' corner";
Javascript Solutions
Solution 1 - Javascript
I recommend against using the jQuery code that was accepted as the answer. While it does not insert the string to decode into the page, it does cause things such as scripts and HTML elements to get created. This is way more code than we need. Instead, I suggest using a safer, more optimized function.
var decodeEntities = (function() {
// this prevents any overhead from creating the object each time
var element = document.createElement('div');
function decodeHTMLEntities (str) {
if(str && typeof str === 'string') {
// strip script/html tags
str = str.replace(/<script[^>]*>([\S\s]*?)<\/script>/gmi, '');
str = str.replace(/<\/?\w(?:[^"'>]|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')*>/gmi, '');
element.innerHTML = str;
str = element.textContent;
element.textContent = '';
}
return str;
}
return decodeHTMLEntities;
})();
To use this function, just call decodeEntities("&") and it will use the same underlying techniques as the jQuery version will—but without jQuery's overhead, and after sanitizing the HTML tags in the input. See Mike Samuel's comment on the accepted answer for how to filter out HTML tags.
This function can be easily used as a jQuery plugin by adding the following line in your project.
jQuery.decodeEntities = decodeEntities;
Solution 2 - Javascript
You could try something like:
var Title = $('<textarea />').html("Chris' corner").text();
console.log(Title);
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
A more interactive version:
$('form').submit(function() {
var theString = $('#string').val();
var varTitle = $('<textarea />').html(theString).text();
$('#output').text(varTitle);
return false;
});
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<form action="#" method="post">
<fieldset>
<label for="string">Enter a html-encoded string to decode</label>
<input type="text" name="string" id="string" />
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<input type="submit" value="decode" />
</fieldset>
</form>
<div id="output"></div>
Solution 3 - Javascript
Like Robert K said, don't use jQuery.html().text() to decode html entities as it's unsafe because user input should never have access to the DOM. Read about XSS for why this is unsafe.
Instead try the Underscore.js utility-belt library which comes with escape and unescape methods:
Escapes a string for insertion into HTML, replacing &, <, >, ", `, and ' characters.
_.escape('Curly, Larry & Moe');
=> "Curly, Larry & Moe"
The opposite of escape, replaces &, <, >, ", ` and ' with their unescaped counterparts.
_.unescape('Curly, Larry & Moe');
=> "Curly, Larry & Moe"
To support decoding more characters, just copy the Underscore unescape method and add more characters to the map.
Solution 4 - Javascript
This is my favourite way of decoding HTML characters. The advantage of using this code is that tags are also preserved.
function decodeHtml(html) {
var txt = document.createElement("textarea");
txt.innerHTML = html;
return txt.value;
}
Example: http://jsfiddle.net/k65s3/
Input:
Entity: Bad attempt at XSS:<script>alert('new\nline?')</script><br>
Output:
Entity: Bad attempt at XSS:<script>alert('new\nline?')</script><br>
Solution 5 - Javascript
Here's a quick method that doesn't require creating a div, and decodes the "most common" HTML escaped chars:
function decodeHTMLEntities(text) {
var entities = [ ['amp', '&'],
['apos', '\''],
['#x27', '\''],
['#x2F', '/'],
['#39', '\''],
['#47', '/'],
['lt', '<'],
['gt', '>'],
['nbsp', ' '],
['quot', '"']
];
for (var i = 0, max = entities.length; i < max; ++i)
text = text.replace(new RegExp('&'+entities[i][0]+';', 'g'), entities[i][1]);
return text;
}
Solution 6 - Javascript
here is another version:
function convertHTMLEntity(text){
const span = document.createElement('span');
return text
.replace(/&[#A-Za-z0-9]+;/gi, (entity,position,text)=> {
span.innerHTML = entity;
return span.innerText;
});
}
console.log(convertHTMLEntity('Large < £ 500'));
Solution 7 - Javascript
Inspired by Robert K's solution, this version does not strip HTML tags, and is just as secure.
var decode_entities = (function() {
// Remove HTML Entities
var element = document.createElement('div');
function decode_HTML_entities (str) {
if(str && typeof str === 'string') {
// Escape HTML before decoding for HTML Entities
str = escape(str).replace(/%26/g,'&').replace(/%23/g,'#').replace(/%3B/g,';');
element.innerHTML = str;
if(element.innerText){
str = element.innerText;
element.innerText = '';
}else{
// Firefox support
str = element.textContent;
element.textContent = '';
}
}
return unescape(str);
}
return decode_HTML_entities;
})();
Solution 8 - Javascript
jQuery provides a way to encode and decode html entities.
If you use a "<div/>" tag, it will strip out all the html.
function htmlDecode(value) {
return $("<div/>").html(value).text();
}
function htmlEncode(value) {
return $('<div/>').text(value).html();
}
If you use a "<textarea/>" tag, it will preserve the html tags.
function htmlDecode(value) {
return $("<textarea/>").html(value).text();
}
function htmlEncode(value) {
return $('<textarea/>').text(value).html();
}
Solution 9 - Javascript
To add yet another "inspired by Robert K" to the list, here is another safe version which does not strip HTML tags. Instead of running the whole string through the HTML parser, it pulls out only the entities and converts those.
var decodeEntities = (function() {
// this prevents any overhead from creating the object each time
var element = document.createElement('div');
// regular expression matching HTML entities
var entity = /&(?:#x[a-f0-9]+|#[0-9]+|[a-z0-9]+);?/ig;
return function decodeHTMLEntities(str) {
// find and replace all the html entities
str = str.replace(entity, function(m) {
element.innerHTML = m;
return element.textContent;
});
// reset the value
element.textContent = '';
return str;
}
})();
Solution 10 - Javascript
Inspired by Robert K's solution, strips html tags and prevents executing scripts and eventhandlers like: <img src=fake onerror="prompt(1)">
Tested on latest Chrome, FF, IE (should work from IE9, but haven't tested).
var decodeEntities = (function () {
//create a new html document (doesn't execute script tags in child elements)
var doc = document.implementation.createHTMLDocument("");
var element = doc.createElement('div');
function getText(str) {
element.innerHTML = str;
str = element.textContent;
element.textContent = '';
return str;
}
function decodeHTMLEntities(str) {
if (str && typeof str === 'string') {
var x = getText(str);
while (str !== x) {
str = x;
x = getText(x);
}
return x;
}
}
return decodeHTMLEntities;
})();
Simply call:
decodeEntities('<img src=fake onerror="prompt(1)">');
decodeEntities("<script>alert('aaa!')</script>");
Solution 11 - Javascript
Injecting untrusted HTML into the page is dangerous as explained in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1147359/jquery-decode-html-entities#comments-2419664.
One alternative is to use a JavaScript-only implementation of PHP's html_entity_decode (from http://phpjs.org/functions/html_entity_decode:424). The example would then be something like:
var varTitle = html_entity_decode("Chris' corner");
Solution 12 - Javascript
Here is a full version
function htmldecode(s){
window.HTML_ESC_MAP = {
"nbsp":" ","iexcl":"¡","cent":"¢","pound":"£","curren":"¤","yen":"¥","brvbar":"¦","sect":"§","uml":"¨","copy":"©","ordf":"ª","laquo":"«","not":"¬","reg":"®","macr":"¯","deg":"°","plusmn":"±","sup2":"²","sup3":"³","acute":"´","micro":"µ","para":"¶","middot":"·","cedil":"¸","sup1":"¹","ordm":"º","raquo":"»","frac14":"¼","frac12":"½","frac34":"¾","iquest":"¿","Agrave":"À","Aacute":"Á","Acirc":"Â","Atilde":"Ã","Auml":"Ä","Aring":"Å","AElig":"Æ","Ccedil":"Ç","Egrave":"È","Eacute":"É","Ecirc":"Ê","Euml":"Ë","Igrave":"Ì","Iacute":"Í","Icirc":"Î","Iuml":"Ï","ETH":"Ð","Ntilde":"Ñ","Ograve":"Ò","Oacute":"Ó","Ocirc":"Ô","Otilde":"Õ","Ouml":"Ö","times":"×","Oslash":"Ø","Ugrave":"Ù","Uacute":"Ú","Ucirc":"Û","Uuml":"Ü","Yacute":"Ý","THORN":"Þ","szlig":"ß","agrave":"à","aacute":"á","acirc":"â","atilde":"ã","auml":"ä","aring":"å","aelig":"æ","ccedil":"ç","egrave":"è","eacute":"é","ecirc":"ê","euml":"ë","igrave":"ì","iacute":"í","icirc":"î","iuml":"ï","eth":"ð","ntilde":"ñ","ograve":"ò","oacute":"ó","ocirc":"ô","otilde":"õ","ouml":"ö","divide":"÷","oslash":"ø","ugrave":"ù","uacute":"ú","ucirc":"û","uuml":"ü","yacute":"ý","thorn":"þ","yuml":"ÿ","fnof":"ƒ","Alpha":"Α","Beta":"Β","Gamma":"Γ","Delta":"Δ","Epsilon":"Ε","Zeta":"Ζ","Eta":"Η","Theta":"Θ","Iota":"Ι","Kappa":"Κ","Lambda":"Λ","Mu":"Μ","Nu":"Ν","Xi":"Ξ","Omicron":"Ο","Pi":"Π","Rho":"Ρ","Sigma":"Σ","Tau":"Τ","Upsilon":"Υ","Phi":"Φ","Chi":"Χ","Psi":"Ψ","Omega":"Ω","alpha":"α","beta":"β","gamma":"γ","delta":"δ","epsilon":"ε","zeta":"ζ","eta":"η","theta":"θ","iota":"ι","kappa":"κ","lambda":"λ","mu":"μ","nu":"ν","xi":"ξ","omicron":"ο","pi":"π","rho":"ρ","sigmaf":"ς","sigma":"σ","tau":"τ","upsilon":"υ","phi":"φ","chi":"χ","psi":"ψ","omega":"ω","thetasym":"ϑ","upsih":"ϒ","piv":"ϖ","bull":"•","hellip":"…","prime":"′","Prime":"″","oline":"‾","frasl":"⁄","weierp":"℘","image":"ℑ","real":"ℜ","trade":"™","alefsym":"ℵ","larr":"←","uarr":"↑","rarr":"→","darr":"↓","harr":"↔","crarr":"↵","lArr":"⇐","uArr":"⇑","rArr":"⇒","dArr":"⇓","hArr":"⇔","forall":"∀","part":"∂","exist":"∃","empty":"∅","nabla":"∇","isin":"∈","notin":"∉","ni":"∋","prod":"∏","sum":"∑","minus":"−","lowast":"∗","radic":"√","prop":"∝","infin":"∞","ang":"∠","and":"∧","or":"∨","cap":"∩","cup":"∪","int":"∫","there4":"∴","sim":"∼","cong":"≅","asymp":"≈","ne":"≠","equiv":"≡","le":"≤","ge":"≥","sub":"⊂","sup":"⊃","nsub":"⊄","sube":"⊆","supe":"⊇","oplus":"⊕","otimes":"⊗","perp":"⊥","sdot":"⋅","lceil":"⌈","rceil":"⌉","lfloor":"⌊","rfloor":"⌋","lang":"〈","rang":"〉","loz":"◊","spades":"♠","clubs":"♣","hearts":"♥","diams":"♦","\"":"quot","amp":"&","lt":"<","gt":">","OElig":"Œ","oelig":"œ","Scaron":"Š","scaron":"š","Yuml":"Ÿ","circ":"ˆ","tilde":"˜","ndash":"–","mdash":"—","lsquo":"‘","rsquo":"’","sbquo":"‚","ldquo":"“","rdquo":"”","bdquo":"„","dagger":"†","Dagger":"‡","permil":"‰","lsaquo":"‹","rsaquo":"›","euro":"€"};
if(!window.HTML_ESC_MAP_EXP)
window.HTML_ESC_MAP_EXP = new RegExp("&("+Object.keys(HTML_ESC_MAP).join("|")+");","g");
return s?s.replace(window.HTML_ESC_MAP_EXP,function(x){
return HTML_ESC_MAP[x.substring(1,x.length-1)]||x;
}):s;
}
Usage
htmldecode("∑ >€");
Solution 13 - Javascript
A more functional approach to @William Lahti's answer:
var entities = {
'amp': '&',
'apos': '\'',
'#x27': '\'',
'#x2F': '/',
'#39': '\'',
'#47': '/',
'lt': '<',
'gt': '>',
'nbsp': ' ',
'quot': '"'
}
function decodeHTMLEntities (text) {
return text.replace(/&([^;]+);/gm, function (match, entity) {
return entities[entity] || match
})
}
Solution 14 - Javascript
Because @Robert K and @mattcasey both have good code, I thought I'd contribute here with a CoffeeScript version, in case anyone in the future could use it:
String::unescape = (strict = false) ->
###
# Take escaped text, and return the unescaped version
#
# @param string str | String to be used
# @param bool strict | Stict mode will remove all HTML
#
# Test it here:
# https://jsfiddle.net/tigerhawkvok/t9pn1dn5/
#
# Code: https://gist.github.com/tigerhawkvok/285b8631ed6ebef4446d
###
# Create a dummy element
element = document.createElement("div")
decodeHTMLEntities = (str) ->
if str? and typeof str is "string"
unless strict is true
# escape HTML tags
str = escape(str).replace(/%26/g,'&').replace(/%23/g,'#').replace(/%3B/g,';')
else
str = str.replace(/<script[^>]*>([\S\s]*?)<\/script>/gmi, '')
str = str.replace(/<\/?\w(?:[^"'>]|"[^"]*"|'[^']*')*>/gmi, '')
element.innerHTML = str
if element.innerText
# Do we support innerText?
str = element.innerText
element.innerText = ""
else
# Firefox
str = element.textContent
element.textContent = ""
unescape(str)
# Remove encoded or double-encoded tags
fixHtmlEncodings = (string) ->
string = string.replace(/\&#/mg, '&#') # The rest, for double-encodings
string = string.replace(/\"/mg, '"')
string = string.replace(/\"e;/mg, '"')
string = string.replace(/\_/mg, '_')
string = string.replace(/\'/mg, "'")
string = string.replace(/\"/mg, '"')
string = string.replace(/\>/mg, '>')
string = string.replace(/\</mg, '<')
string
# Run it
tmp = fixHtmlEncodings(this)
decodeHTMLEntities(tmp)
See https://jsfiddle.net/tigerhawkvok/t9pn1dn5/7/ or https://gist.github.com/tigerhawkvok/285b8631ed6ebef4446d (includes compiled JS, and is probably updated compared to this answer)
Solution 15 - Javascript
I know I'm a bit late to the game, but I thought I might provide the following snippet as an example of how I decode HTML entities using jQuery:
var varTitleE = "Chris' corner";
var varTitleD = $("<div/>").html(varTitleE).text();
console.log(varTitleE + " vs. " + varTitleD);
Don't forget to fire-up your inspector/firebug to see the console results -- or simply replace console.log(...) w/alert(...)
That said, here's what my console via the Google Chrome inspector read:
Chris' corner vs. Chris' corner
Solution 16 - Javascript
To do it in pure javascript without jquery or predefining everything you can cycle the encoded html string through an elements innerHTML and innerText(/textContent) properties for every decode step that is required:
<html>
<head>
<title>For every decode step, cycle through innerHTML and innerText </title>
<script>
function decode(str) {
var d = document.createElement("div");
d.innerHTML = str;
return typeof d.innerText !== 'undefined' ? d.innerText : d.textContent;
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<script>
var encodedString = "<p>name</p><p><span style=\"font-size:xx-small;\">ajde</span></p><p><em>da</em></p>";
</script>
<input type=button onclick="document.body.innerHTML=decode(encodedString)"/>
</body>
</html>
Solution 17 - Javascript
I think that is the exact opposite of the solution chosen.
var decoded = $("<div/>").text(encodedStr).html();
Try it :)