Character entity reference
Character Entity Reference[edit | edit source]
A character entity reference is a way of representing a character in HTML and XML documents using a specific syntax. This is particularly useful for characters that are not easily typed on a keyboard or that have special meaning in the markup language itself.
Overview[edit | edit source]
In HTML and XML, certain characters are reserved for use in the markup language. For example, the less-than sign (<) and greater-than sign (>) are used to define tags. To include these characters in the content of a document, a character entity reference is used.
A character entity reference consists of an ampersand (&), followed by a name or a number, and ends with a semicolon (;). For example, the less-than sign can be represented as `<` or `<`.
Types of Character Entity References[edit | edit source]
There are two main types of character entity references:
- Named Character References: These use a predefined name to represent a character. For example, `&` represents the ampersand (&) character.
- Numeric Character References: These use a number to represent a character. The number can be in decimal or hexadecimal format. For example, `&` and `&` both represent the ampersand character.
Common Character Entity References[edit | edit source]
Here are some common character entity references used in HTML:
- `<` for the less-than sign (<)
- `>` for the greater-than sign (>)
- `&` for the ampersand (&)
- `"` for the double quotation mark (")
- `'` for the apostrophe (')
Usage in HTML and XML[edit | edit source]
Character entity references are used in both HTML and XML to ensure that documents are correctly parsed and displayed. They are particularly important in XML where the document must be well-formed.
In HTML, character entity references are often used to display special symbols and characters that are not part of the standard ASCII character set. In XML, they are used to ensure that the document is valid and can be processed by XML parsers.
Importance[edit | edit source]
Character entity references are crucial for web developers and content creators who need to include special characters in their documents without breaking the syntax of the markup language. They ensure that documents are both human-readable and machine-readable.
Also see[edit | edit source]
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