How to convert HTML entities into special characters using plain JavaScript

Question

With the help of bucabay we are able to encode special characters into html entities below link for ref: (How to convert characters to HTML entities using plain JavaScript) Now we want to decode them i.e.how to convert HTML entities into special characters again.

Regards, AA.

possible duplicate of [Convert HTML Character Entities back to regular text using javascript](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4338963/convert-html-character-entities-back-to-regular-text-using-javascript) — Luca Borrione, Apr 08 '14 at 14:44

Kiba · Answer 1 · 2013-10-07T05:45:23.010

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You can do it using the basic javascript or by using the jQuery..

newText = "Übergroße Äpfel mit Würmern";

var my_unescaped_text = jQuery('').html(newText).text();

edited Oct 07 '13 at 05:45

answered Oct 07 '13 at 05:39

Kiba

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need to convert those html entities into special characters. – user2831401 Oct 07 '13 at 06:18
This introduces a security risk in the form of a cross-site scripting vulnerability: if the input (`newText`) contains something like ` – Mathias Bynens May 23 '14 at 17:27

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 07 '13 at 06:50

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You can do this by making the browser parse the text as HTML, e.g.

var text = "&Uuml;bergro&szlig;e &Auml;pfel mit W&uuml;rmern";
var span = document.createElement('span');
span.innerHTML = text;
alert(span.innerHTML); // contains the characters as decoded

answered Oct 07 '13 at 06:50

Jukka K. Korpela

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This introduces a security risk in the form of a cross-site scripting vulnerability: if the input (`text`) contains something like ` – Mathias Bynens May 23 '14 at 17:27
@MathiasBynens, there is nothing in the question that suggests that the data comes from an external source. Quite the opposite: the data is described as being created by encoding some characters as entities. – Jukka K. Korpela May 23 '14 at 19:04

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:05

For a robust solution that avoids the issues in the other answers, use the he library. From its README:

he (for “HTML entities”) is a robust HTML entity encoder/decoder written in JavaScript. It supports all standardized named character references as per HTML, handles ambiguous ampersands and other edge cases just like a browser would, has an extensive test suite, and — contrary to many other JavaScript solutions — he handles astral Unicode symbols just fine. An online demo is available.

Here’s how you’d use it:

var html = '&Uuml;bergro&szlig;e &Auml;pfel mit W&uuml;rmern';
var decoded = he.decode(html);
// → `decoded` is now 'Übergroße Äpfel mit Würmern'

See this related Stack Overflow answer. And this one, too.

How to convert HTML entities into special characters using plain JavaScript

3 Answers3