HTML entities to text decoder
Paste text containing HTML references to read it as the page would show it, such as Arabic stored as numbers.
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Processing and privacy: The result is calculated inside your browser and your data is not sent to any server.
How to use it
- Enter text.
- The result appears straight away and updates as you edit.
- Copy the result, or copy a link that keeps the same values to share it.
How it is calculated
&#N; becomes the character with decimal code point N and &#xH; the one with hex H, in one pass. Values 80 to 9F map through Windows-1252 as the HTML standard specifies.
Example
Result: Decoded text: Café & co; References decoded: 2.
Limits and caveats
- Only six names are decoded: &, <, >, ", ' and . Others are left as written.
- A reference must end with a semicolon.
Questions about this tool
Why does – become a dash and not a control character?
The HTML standard maps 128 to 159 through Windows-1252, where 150 is an en dash.
Why does &lt; stay as <?
Decoding happens once, as in a browser: & becomes & and lt; stays plain text.
What happens with � or a huge number?
It is replaced with � (U+FFFD), as browsers do with invalid references.