HTML Entity Decoder Decode HTML entities back to their original characters.
HTML Entity Decoder
Decode HTML entities back to their original characters.
Paste Encoded Text
Paste text containing HTML entities.
Review Decoded Output
HTML entities are converted back to characters.
Copy Decoded Text
Copy the decoded text.
What Is HTML Entity Decoder?
A HTML Entity Decoder is a tool that converts HTML entities back to their original characters, essentially reversing the encoding process to produce human-readable text. Developers and web scrapers use it to decode HTML content, solving the specific problem of unreadable encoded text in source code or scraped data. For instance, when working with HTML source code, it can be challenging to read and understand the content due to encoded entities like & or &, which represent the ampersand character.
The tool handles named entities like <, >, and ", as well as decimal numeric entities like & and hexadecimal numeric entities like &. What makes this tool different is its ability to replace these entities with their corresponding characters, such as replacing © with the copyright symbol. It achieves this through a predefined entity map that maps each entity to its respective character, and then uses regular expressions to handle numeric entities in both decimal and hexadecimal formats.
It supports all common named entities, including , ®, and €, plus any decimal or hexadecimal numeric entity, making it a reliable solution for decoding HTML entities. By using this tool, developers can easily decode html entities online and convert them back to text, allowing for easier reading and manipulation of the content. This process is also known as unescaping html or using an html entity converter to transform encoded text into its original form.
Why Use HTML Entity Decoder?
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Convert scraped HTML content to readable text
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Decode entities found in HTML source code
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Restore original characters from encoded content
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Process HTML data for non-HTML contexts
Common Use Cases
Web Scraping
Decode HTML entities in scraped content to get readable text.
Data Processing
Convert HTML-encoded data back to plain text for analysis.
Content Migration
Decode entities when moving content from HTML to other formats.
Debugging
Inspect what characters HTML entities represent.
Technical Guide
The decoder works in three phases. First, it replaces common named entities using a lookup table covering &, <, >, ", , and symbol entities like ©, ™, €, etc. Second, it processes decimal numeric entities (&#NNN;) using String.fromCharCode(parseInt(code, 10)) to convert the decimal character code to its character. Third, it processes hexadecimal numeric entities (&#xHHH;) similarly with parseInt(code, 16). This covers the full range of HTML entity encoding methods. Named entities are processed first so that partially decoded text does not create false matches in the numeric entity phase.
Tips & Best Practices
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1Handles both named (&) and numeric (&) entity formats
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2Useful for cleaning up HTML source before text processing
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3Supports currency, copyright, and special symbol entities
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4Combine with HTML tag stripping for full text extraction
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📝 Text ToolsFrequently Asked Questions
Q What types of entities can it decode?
Q Does it handle all named entities?
Q Will it strip HTML tags too?
Q What is ?
Q Can it handle double-encoded entities?
About This Tool
HTML Entity Decoder is a free online tool by FreeToolkit.ai. All processing happens directly in your browser — your data never leaves your device. No registration or installation required.