Fast and lightweight HTML entities library for all HTML standards (HTML5, HTML4, XML).
- 🚀 Fast performance - optimized for speed (see benchmarks)
- 📦 Lightweight - small package size (132 kB, see comparison)
- 🔄 Standards compliant - supports HTML5, HTML4, and XML entities
- 📄 Type safe - includes TypeScript and Flow types
- 🔌 Dual ESM/CJS support - works with both module systems
# NPM
npm install html-entities
# Yarn
yarn add html-entities
# pnpm
pnpm add html-entities
Encodes text by replacing HTML special characters (<>&"'
) and/or other character ranges depending on mode
option.
import { encode } from 'html-entities';
// Basic usage (defaults to HTML5 special chars only)
encode('< > " \' & © ∆');
// -> '< > " ' & © ∆'
// Encode non-ASCII printable characters
encode('< ©', { mode: 'nonAsciiPrintable' });
// -> '< ©'
// Specify encoding level (XML) and mode
encode('< ©', { mode: 'nonAsciiPrintable', level: 'xml' });
// -> '< ©'
// Encode only non-ASCII characters, leaving special chars intact
encode('< > " \' & ©', { mode: 'nonAsciiPrintableOnly', level: 'xml' });
// -> '< > " \' & ©'
all
orhtml5
(default) - Uses HTML5 named referenceshtml4
- Uses HTML4 named referencesxml
- Uses XML named references
specialChars
(default) - Encodes only HTML special charactersnonAscii
- Encodes HTML special characters and everything outside the ASCII rangenonAsciiPrintable
- Encodes HTML special characters and everything outside ASCII printable charactersnonAsciiPrintableOnly
- Encodes everything outside ASCII printable range, keeping HTML special characters intactextensive
- Encodes all non-printable characters, non-ASCII characters and all characters with named references
decimal
(default) - Uses decimal numbers for HTML entities (e.g.,©
)hexadecimal
- Uses hexadecimal numbers for HTML entities (e.g.,©
)
Decodes text by replacing HTML entities with their corresponding characters. Unknown entities are preserved.
import { decode } from 'html-entities';
// Basic usage (defaults to HTML5)
decode('< > " ' & © ∆');
// -> '< > " \' & © ∆'
// Specify encoding level
decode('©', { level: 'html5' });
// -> '©'
// XML level doesn't recognize ©
decode('©', { level: 'xml' });
// -> '©'
all
orhtml5
(default) - Uses HTML5 named referenceshtml4
- Uses HTML4 named referencesxml
- Uses XML named references
body
(default) - Emulates browser behavior when parsing tag bodies: entities without semicolon are also replacedattribute
- Emulates browser behavior when parsing tag attributes: entities without semicolon are replaced when not followed by=
strict
- Ignores entities without semicolon
Decodes a single HTML entity. Unknown entities are preserved.
import { decodeEntity } from 'html-entities';
decodeEntity('<');
// -> '<'
decodeEntity('©', { level: 'html5' });
// -> '©'
decodeEntity('©', { level: 'xml' });
// -> '©'
all
orhtml5
(default) - Uses HTML5 named referenceshtml4
- Uses HTML4 named referencesxml
- Uses XML named references
Library | Size |
---|---|
html-entities | 132 kB |
he | 124 kB |
entities | 540 kB |
Results from benchmarks using benchmark.js
. This library's results are marked with *
.
See benchmark source code at benchmark/benchmark.ts
.
Common
Initialization / Load speed
#1: he x 516 ops/sec ±5.71% (78 runs sampled)
* #2: html-entities x 407 ops/sec ±5.64% (81 runs sampled)
#3: entities x 352 ops/sec ±4.16% (80 runs sampled)
HTML5
Encode test
* #1: html-entities.encode - html5, extensive x 437,236 ops/sec ±0.90% (98 runs sampled)
#2: entities.encodeHTML x 335,714 ops/sec ±0.87% (92 runs sampled)
Encode non-ASCII test
* #1: html-entities.encode - html5, nonAscii x 749,246 ops/sec ±0.61% (96 runs sampled)
#2: entities.encodeNonAsciiHTML x 706,984 ops/sec ±1.06% (98 runs sampled)
* #3: html-entities.encode - html5, nonAsciiPrintable x 691,193 ops/sec ±4.47% (90 runs sampled)
#4: he.encode x 141,105 ops/sec ±0.87% (92 runs sampled)
Decode test
#1: entities.decodeHTML x 678,595 ops/sec ±1.28% (92 runs sampled)
#2: entities.decodeHTMLStrict x 684,372 ops/sec ±2.76% (82 runs sampled)
* #3: html-entities.decode - html5, strict x 485,664 ops/sec ±0.80% (94 runs sampled)
* #4: html-entities.decode - html5, body x 463,074 ops/sec ±1.11% (93 runs sampled)
* #5: html-entities.decode - html5, attribute x 456,185 ops/sec ±2.24% (91 runs sampled)
#6: he.decode x 302,668 ops/sec ±2.73% (90 runs sampled)
HTML4
Encode test
* #1: html-entities.encode - html4, nonAscii x 737,475 ops/sec ±1.04% (95 runs sampled)
* #2: html-entities.encode - html4, nonAsciiPrintable x 649,866 ops/sec ±4.28% (79 runs sampled)
* #3: html-entities.encode - html4, extensive x 202,337 ops/sec ±3.66% (64 runs sampled)
Decode test
* #1: html-entities.decode - html4, attribute x 529,674 ops/sec ±0.90% (90 runs sampled)
* #2: html-entities.decode - html4, body x 499,135 ops/sec ±2.27% (80 runs sampled)
* #3: html-entities.decode - html4, strict x 489,806 ops/sec ±4.37% (84 runs sampled)
XML
Encode test
* #1: html-entities.encode - xml, nonAscii x 823,097 ops/sec ±0.75% (81 runs sampled)
* #2: html-entities.encode - xml, nonAsciiPrintable x 764,638 ops/sec ±0.93% (93 runs sampled)
#3: entities.encodeXML x 672,186 ops/sec ±1.51% (92 runs sampled)
* #4: html-entities.encode - xml, extensive x 376,870 ops/sec ±0.76% (77 runs sampled)
Decode test
#1: entities.decodeXML x 930,758 ops/sec ±2.90% (90 runs sampled)
* #2: html-entities.decode - xml, body x 617,321 ops/sec ±0.74% (83 runs sampled)
* #3: html-entities.decode - xml, attribute x 611,598 ops/sec ±0.50% (92 runs sampled)
* #4: html-entities.decode - xml, strict x 607,191 ops/sec ±2.30% (85 runs sampled)
Escaping
Escape test
#1: entities.escapeUTF8 x 1,930,874 ops/sec ±0.80% (95 runs sampled)
#2: he.escape x 1,717,522 ops/sec ±0.75% (84 runs sampled)
* #3: html-entities.encode - xml, specialChars x 1,611,374 ops/sec ±1.30% (92 runs sampled)
#4: entities.escape x 673,710 ops/sec ±1.30% (94 runs sampled)
MIT
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