How to unescape code html using js?

Question

If I use the following then it is displayed like html:

<h1>heading</h1>

This will be the result:

heading

But how do I unescape all the characters inside <code>?

Which results exactly what inside the <code>:

<h1>heading</h1>

Are you asking how to render the `<` character on screen instead of it being treated as the start of a tag? — Quentin, Jul 08 '14 at 10:56
Use `.text()` instead of `.html()` to display it. Or if the text is statically display replace the opening `<` with `&lt` — XCS, Jul 08 '14 at 10:56
Why is this tagged `javascript` and `jquery`? You aren't using them in the question. — Quentin, Jul 08 '14 at 10:57
@Quentin: There is no code at all, so why worry about what language they want the answer in :) — iCollect.it Ltd, Jul 08 '14 at 10:58
If you see Stackoverflow code by inspecting then you'll see everything is inside span. I need something like that! — Navin Rauniyar, Jul 08 '14 at 11:00

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 08 '14 at 10:57

0

Either replace the tag syntax with HTML entities

str = '<foo>';
str = str.replace(/</g, '&lt;').replace(/>/g, '&gt;');
str; // "&lt;foo&gt;"

Or insert it into the page explicitly as text, e.g.

parent.appendChild(document.createTextNode(str));

You may also wish to escape single and double quotes to be on the safe side if you plan to use random strings in attributes, too.

str = str.replace(/"/g, '&quot;').replace(/'/g, '&#39;');

answered Jul 08 '14 at 10:57

Paul S.

There's anything inside the `` is that enough to replace just greater and smaller signs only? – Navin Rauniyar Jul 08 '14 at 10:58
You only need to replace the `<` symbol with `<`, it'll ignore the `>`. – RevanProdigalKnight Jul 08 '14 at 10:58
@RevanProdigalKnight I included `>` and was considering including quotes too, just in case OP was considering using it in other places – Paul S. Jul 08 '14 at 10:59
@PaulS. You only need to replace `<`, though, because that's the start of a tag. If that's not present, the browser will automatically ignore everything else. – RevanProdigalKnight Jul 08 '14 at 11:00
@RevanProdigalKnight consider `str = ' b>';` put inside `` – Paul S. Jul 08 '14 at 11:04
@PaulS. I'm sorry, I don't see how that disproves what I've said. – RevanProdigalKnight Jul 08 '14 at 11:06
@RevanProdigalKnight ` b> -->` will result in a comment followed by `b> -->` – Paul S. Jul 08 '14 at 12:05
That's not what the OP is looking for, though. That's a use case beyond what the OP needs. – RevanProdigalKnight Jul 08 '14 at 12:10