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HTML Entity Decoder Decode HTML entities back to their original characters.

HTML Entity Decoder illustration
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HTML Entity Decoder

Decode HTML entities back to their original characters.

1

Paste Encoded Text

Paste text containing HTML entities.

2

Review Decoded Output

HTML entities are converted back to characters.

3

Copy Decoded Text

Copy the decoded text.

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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?

  • Convert scraped HTML content to readable text
  • Decode entities found in HTML source code
  • Restore original characters from encoded content
  • 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

  • 1
    Handles both named (&) and numeric (&) entity formats
  • 2
    Useful for cleaning up HTML source before text processing
  • 3
    Supports currency, copyright, and special symbol entities
  • 4
    Combine with HTML tag stripping for full text extraction

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q What types of entities can it decode?
Named entities (like &), decimal numeric (like &), and hexadecimal numeric (like &).
Q Does it handle all named entities?
It covers the most common named entities. Less common ones may need to be in numeric format.
Q Will it strip HTML tags too?
No, it only decodes entities. Use the HTML to Markdown tool to strip tags and convert to text.
Q What is  ?
  is a non-breaking space. The decoder converts it to a regular space character.
Q Can it handle double-encoded entities?
It handles single-level encoding. For double-encoded text (like &), run the decoder twice.

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.