Javascript trying to write HTML character code to page

Question

I'm using .innerHTML to write strings to an HTML page. I need to have things like < and > to print alongside < and > on the page. However, < consistently gets printed out as <. I've heard that I can do this if I write to the page as HTML rather than text, but I thought .innerHTML was doing that. Is there an escape character I can use or is there something I can do with JS to get this done?

Have you tried `document.write()`? Also, `&` – David Feb 13 '13 at 17:19 — David, Feb 13 '13 at 17:19
@gordon He looks to be trying to go in the other direction. – Jackson Egan Feb 13 '13 at 17:39 — Jackson Egan, Feb 13 '13 at 17:39

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 13 '13 at 17:20

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You need to write out < as &lt;.

answered Feb 13 '13 at 17:20

Michael Irigoyen

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Thanks for the quick and easy solution! – Jackson Egan Feb 13 '13 at 17:38

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 13 '13 at 17:19

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You can use <pre><</pre> and <pre>&rt;</pre> tags in your HTML output .. This should give you the output you are looking for.

answered Feb 13 '13 at 17:19

Zak

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This just added a line between the < and the tag it should surround. – Jackson Egan Feb 13 '13 at 17:23
I would suggest posting more code then so that we all may have a better grasp of what you are attempting to do. – Zak Feb 13 '13 at 17:28
Michael got it. Thanks, though! – Jackson Egan Feb 13 '13 at 17:38

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Er... `

` tags do not prevent HTML entities from working.

– Álvaro González Feb 13 '13 at 17:39

Javascript trying to write HTML character code to page

2 Answers2