Named and Numeric Character Entities
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Browsers ignore the charset police. So ¡℘ƒϑϒ! on them!
The charset police keep saying we should never use named entities, always use numeric entities. Baloney. As we can see below, both work, and they work in all 4 browsers, with a myriad of fonts and charset settings.
They also say, “The entire range from 129 through 159 are invalid characters, and consequently should not be used.” Baloney! I put them in the table below just see where they do and do not work, and tested in four browsers with Unicode and legacy fonts, and with several charset settings. I could not find a font, lang, or charset where 130-159 would not render. So ¡℘ƒϑϒ! on the charset police!
Test parameters: I tested these in IE7, Chrome1, FireFox3, and Opera9.5, on XP-Pro-SR3-IIS5.1. The list boxes poke your selections into the page head’s meta tags and CSS.
Note: If you select a font you don’t have, you get your browser default, which is usually Times New Roman.
I did find a few a few little surprises:
- Some chars in the 8000-series do not work in IE unless a Unicode font is selected. But they all do work in Chrome, FireFox, and Opera, with every font I could test.
- IE and Chrome will not display 9001 or 9002, but Firefox and Opera will.
- At least for the characters in the table, setting lang and charset to anything and everything, including “bogus”, made no difference at all! Even picking a Unicode font and a charset of us-ascii didn’t stop them from rendering properly!
- All the used (i.e., not marked as unused) characters in the “invalid” 129-159 range work in all fonts, all charsets, all langs, in all four browsers. So ¡℘ƒϑϒ! on the charset police again!
- Selecting any of the W3C-defined generics (serif, sans-serif, monospace, western, and fantasy) only works in IE! The other three completely ignored them and used the browser default. Except that Opera will obey monospace. So ¡℘ƒϑϒ! on generics fallbacks!
- You can set font to almost anything, then set charset=bogus, lang=bogus, language name=bogus, and content-language=bogus, and FireFox and Opera will render every named and numbered HTML entity, plus the “invalid” 129-159 range. Chrome will omit only 9001-9002. IE7 will omit those and 35 others in the 8000-series. So ¡℘ƒϑϒ! on lang and charset meta tags!
Conclusion: Just use the named entities and forget all the numbers. And don’t waste as much time as I have over the years worrying about what’s the “proper” charset and encoding to use.
No. | Num. | Named | Nam. | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
34 | " | quot | " | quotation mark = APL quote |
38 | & | amp | & | ampersand |
60 | < | lt | < | less-than sign |
62 | > | gt | > | greater-than sign |
Invalid: never use’um! (so they say) | ||||
129 | unused | Unused | ||
130 | ‚ | sbquo | ‚ | baseline single quote |
131 | ƒ | fnof | ƒ | florin |
132 | „ | bdquo | „ | baseline double quote |
133 | … | hellip | … | ellipsis |
134 | † | dagger | † | dagger (single) |
135 | ‡ | Dagger | ‡ | Dagger (double) |
136 | ˆ | circ | ˆ | circumflex |
137 | ‰ | permil | ‰ | per mille |
138 | Š | Scaron | š | S caron |
139 | ‹ | lsaquo | ‹ | left single guillemet |
140 | Œ | OElig | Œ | OE ligature |
141 | x | Unused | ||
142 | Ž | - | – | Z caron (numeric only) |
143 | x | unused | ||
144 | x | unused | ||
145 | ‘ | lsquo | ‘ | left single quote |
146 | ’ | rsquo | ’ | right single quote |
147 | “ | ldquo | “ | left double quote |
148 | ” | rdquo | ” | right double quote |
149 | • | bull | • | bullet (large) |
150 | – | ndash | – | en dash |
151 | — | mdash | — | em dash |
152 | ˜ | tilde | ˜ | tilde |
153 | ™ | trade | ™ | trademark |
154 | š | scaron | š | s caron |
155 | › | rsaquo | › | right single guillemet |
156 | œ | oelig | œ | oe ligature |
157 | x | unused | ||
158 | ž | - | z caron (numeric only) | |
159 | Ÿ | Yuml | Ÿ | Y diaeresis |
(end of “forbidden” range) | ||||
160 | nbsp | no-break space = non-breaking space | ||
161 | ¡ | iexcl | ¡ | inverted exclamation mark |
162 | ¢ | cent | ¢ | cent sign |
163 | £ | pound | £ | pound sign |
164 | ¤ | curren | ¤ | currency sign |
165 | ¥ | yen | ¥ | yen sign = yuan sign |
166 | ¦ | brvbar | ¦ | broken bar = broken vertical bar |
167 | § | sect | § | section sign |
168 | ¨ | uml | ¨ | diaeresis = spacing diaeresis |
169 | © | copy | © | copyright sign |
170 | ª | ordf | ª | feminine ordinal indicator |
171 | « | laquo | « | left-pointing double angle quotation mark = left pointing guillemet |
172 | ¬ | not | ¬ | not sign |
173 | | shy | | soft hyphen = discretionary hyphen |
174 | ® | reg | ® | registered sign = registered trade mark sign |
175 | ¯ | macr | ¯ | macron = spacing macron = overline = APL overbar |
176 | ° | deg | ° | degree sign |
177 | ± | plusmn | ± | plus-minus sign = plus-or-minus sign |
178 | ² | sup2 | ² | superscript two = superscript digit two = squared |
179 | ³ | sup3 | ³ | superscript three = superscript digit three = cubed |
180 | ´ | acute | ´ | acute accent = spacing acute |
181 | µ | micro | µ | micro sign |
182 | ¶ | para | ¶ | pilcrow sign = paragraph sign |
183 | · | middot | · | middle dot = Georgian comma = Greek middle dot |
184 | ¸ | cedil | ¸ | cedilla = spacing cedilla |
185 | ¹ | sup1 | ¹ | superscript one = superscript digit one |
186 | º | ordm | º | masculine ordinal indicator |
187 | » | raquo | » | right-pointing double angle quotation mark = right guillemet |
188 | ¼ | frac14 | ¼ | vulgar fraction one quarter = fraction one quarter |
189 | ½ | frac12 | ½ | vulgar fraction one half = fraction one half |
190 | ¾ | frac34 | ¾ | vulgar fraction three quarters = fraction three quarters |
191 | ¿ | iquest | ¿ | inverted question mark = turned question mark |
192 | À | Agrave | À | latin capital A with grave = latin capital A grave |
193 | Á | Aacute | Á | latin capital A with acute |
194 | Â | Acirc | Â | latin capital A with circumflex |
195 | Ã | Atilde | Ã | latin capital A with tilde |
196 | Ä | Auml | Ä | latin capital A with diaeresis |
197 | Å | Aring | Å | latin capital A with ring above = latin capital A ring |
198 | Æ | AElig | Æ | latin capital AE = latin capital ligature AE |
199 | Ç | Ccedil | Ç | latin capital C with cedilla |
200 | È | Egrave | È | latin capital E with grave |
201 | É | Eacute | É | latin capital E with acute |
202 | Ê | Ecirc | Ê | latin capital E with circumflex |
203 | Ë | Euml | Ë | latin capital E with diaeresis |
204 | Ì | Igrave | Ì | latin capital I with grave |
205 | Í | Iacute | Í | latin capital I with acute |
206 | Î | Icirc | Î | latin capital I with circumflex |
207 | Ï | Iuml | Ï | latin capital I with diaeresis |
208 | Ð | ETH | Ð | latin capital ETH |
209 | Ñ | Ntilde | Ñ | latin capital N with tilde |
210 | Ò | Ograve | Ò | latin capital O with grave |
211 | Ó | Oacute | Ó | latin capital O with acute |
212 | Ô | Ocirc | Ô | latin capital O with circumflex |
213 | Õ | Otilde | Õ | latin capital O with tilde |
214 | Ö | Ouml | Ö | latin capital O with diaeresis |
215 | × | times | × | multiplication sign |
216 | Ø | Oslash | Ø | latin capital O with stroke = latin capital O slash |
217 | Ù | Ugrave | Ù | latin capital U with grave |
218 | Ú | Uacute | Ú | latin capital U with acute |
219 | Û | Ucirc | Û | latin capital U with circumflex |
220 | Ü | Uuml | Ü | latin capital U with diaeresis |
221 | Ý | Yacute | Ý | latin capital Y with acute |
222 | Þ | THORN | Þ | latin capital THORN |
223 | ß | szlig | ß | latin small sharp s = ess-zed |
224 | à | agrave | à | latin small a with grave = latin small a grave |
225 | á | aacute | á | latin small a with acute |
226 | â | acirc | â | latin small a with circumflex |
227 | ã | atilde | ã | latin small a with tilde |
228 | ä | auml | ä | latin small a with diaeresis |
229 | å | aring | å | latin small a with ring above = latin small a ring |
230 | æ | aelig | æ | latin small ae = latin small ligature ae |
231 | ç | ccedil | ç | latin small c with cedilla |
232 | è | egrave | è | latin small e with grave |
233 | é | eacute | é | latin small e with acute |
234 | ê | ecirc | ê | latin small e with circumflex |
235 | ë | euml | ë | latin small e with diaeresis |
236 | ì | igrave | ì | latin small i with grave |
237 | í | iacute | í | latin small i with acute |
238 | î | icirc | î | latin small i with circumflex |
239 | ï | iuml | ï | latin small i with diaeresis |
240 | ð | eth | ð | latin small eth |
241 | ñ | ntilde | ñ | latin small n with tilde |
242 | ò | ograve | ò | latin small o with grave |
243 | ó | oacute | ó | latin small o with acute |
244 | ô | ocirc | ô | latin small o with circumflex |
245 | õ | otilde | õ | latin small o with tilde |
246 | ö | ouml | ö | latin small o with diaeresis |
247 | ÷ | divide | ÷ | division sign |
248 | ø | oslash | ø | latin small o with stroke, = latin small o slash |
249 | ù | ugrave | ù | latin small u with grave |
250 | ú | uacute | ú | latin small u with acute |
251 | û | ucirc | û | latin small u with circumflex |
252 | ü | uuml | ü | latin small u with diaeresis |
253 | ý | yacute | ý | latin small y with acute |
254 | þ | thorn | þ | latin small thorn with |
255 | ÿ | yuml | ÿ | latin small y with diaeresis |
338 | Œ | OElig | Œ | latin capital ligature OE |
339 | œ | oelig | œ | latin small ligature oe |
352 | Š | Scaron | Š | latin capital S with caron |
353 | š | scaron | š | latin small s with caron |
376 | Ÿ | Yuml | Ÿ | latin capital Y with diaeresis |
402 | ƒ | fnof | ƒ | latin small f with hook = function = florin |
710 | ˆ | circ | ˆ | modifier letter circumflex accent |
732 | ˜ | tilde | ˜ | small tilde |
913 | Α | Alpha | Α | greek capital alpha |
914 | Β | Beta | Β | greek capital beta |
915 | Γ | Gamma | Γ | greek capital gamma |
916 | Δ | Delta | Δ | greek capital delta |
917 | Ε | Epsilon | Ε | greek capital epsilon |
918 | Ζ | Zeta | Ζ | greek capital zeta |
919 | Η | Eta | Η | greek capital eta |
920 | Θ | Theta | Θ | greek capital theta |
921 | Ι | Iota | Ι | greek capital iota |
922 | Κ | Kappa | Κ | greek capital kappa |
923 | Λ | Lambda | Λ | greek capital lambda |
924 | Μ | Mu | Μ | greek capital mu |
925 | Ν | Nu | Ν | greek capital nu |
926 | Ξ | Xi | Ξ | greek capital xi |
927 | Ο | Omicron | Ο | greek capital omicron |
928 | Π | Pi | Π | greek capital pi |
929 | Ρ | Rho | Ρ | greek capital rho |
931 | Σ | Sigma | Σ | greek capital sigma |
932 | Τ | Tau | Τ | greek capital tau |
933 | Υ | Upsilon | Υ | greek capital upsilon |
934 | Φ | Phi | Φ | greek capital phi |
935 | Χ | Chi | Χ | greek capital chi |
936 | Ψ | Psi | Ψ | greek capital psi |
937 | Ω | Omega | Ω | greek capital omega |
945 | α | alpha | α | greek small alpha |
946 | β | beta | β | greek small beta |
947 | γ | gamma | γ | greek small gamma |
948 | δ | delta | δ | greek small delta |
949 | ε | epsilon | ε | greek small epsilon |
950 | ζ | zeta | ζ | greek small zeta |
951 | η | eta | η | greek small eta |
952 | θ | theta | θ | greek small theta |
953 | ι | iota | ι | greek small iota |
954 | κ | kappa | κ | greek small kappa |
955 | λ | lambda | λ | greek small lambda |
956 | μ | mu | μ | greek small mu |
957 | ν | nu | ν | greek small nu |
958 | ξ | xi | ξ | greek small xi |
959 | ο | omicron | ο | greek small omicron |
960 | π | pi | π | greek small pi |
961 | ρ | rho | ρ | greek small rho |
962 | ς | sigmaf | ς | greek small final sigma |
963 | σ | sigma | σ | greek small sigma |
964 | τ | tau | τ | greek small tau |
965 | υ | upsilon | υ | greek small upsilon |
966 | φ | phi | φ | greek small phi |
967 | χ | chi | χ | greek small chi |
968 | ψ | psi | ψ | greek small psi |
969 | ω | omega | ω | greek small omega |
977 | ϑ | thetasym | ϑ | greek small theta symbol |
978 | ϒ | upsih | ϒ | greek upsilon with hook symbol |
982 | ϖ | piv | ϖ | greek pi symbol |
8194 | ensp | en space [inverse (drag-select) these spaces to see them.] | ||
8195 | emsp | em space | ||
8201 | thinsp | thin space | ||
8204 | | zwnj | | zero width non-joiner |
8205 | | zwj | | zero width joiner |
8206 | | lrm | | left-to-right mark |
8207 | | rlm | | right-to-left mark |
8211 | – | ndash | – | en dash |
8212 | — | mdash | — | em dash |
8216 | ‘ | lsquo | ‘ | left single quotation mark |
8217 | ’ | rsquo | ’ | right single quotation mark |
8218 | ‚ | sbquo | ‚ | single low-9 quotation mark |
8220 | “ | ldquo | “ | left double quotation mark |
8221 | ” | rdquo | ” | right double quotation mark |
8222 | „ | bdquo | „ | double low-9 quotation mark |
8224 | † | dagger | † | dagger |
8225 | ‡ | Dagger | ‡ | double dagger |
8226 | • | bull | • | bullet = black small circle bullet is NOT the same as dot operator 8901. |
8230 | … | hellip | … | horizontal ellipsis = three dot leader |
8240 | ‰ | permil | ‰ | per mille sign |
8242 | ′ | prime | ′ | prime = minutes = feet |
8243 | ″ | Prime | ″ | double prime = seconds = inches |
8249 | ‹ | lsaquo | ‹ | single left-pointing angle quotation mark |
8250 | › | rsaquo | › | single right-pointing angle quotation mark |
8254 | ‾ | oline | ‾ | overline = spacing overscore |
8260 | ⁄ | frasl | ⁄ | fraction slash |
8364 | € | euro | € | euro sign |
8465 | ℑ | image | ℑ | blackletter capital I = imaginary part [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8472 | ℘ | weierp | ℘ | script capital P = power set = Weierstrass p [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8476 | ℜ | real | ℜ | blackletter capital R = real part symbol [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8482 | ™ | trade | ™ | trade mark sign |
8501 | ℵ | alefsym | ℵ | alef symbol = first transfinite cardinal [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8592 | ← | larr | ← | leftwards arrow |
8593 | ↑ | uarr | ↑ | upwards arrow |
8594 | → | rarr | → | rightwards arrow |
8595 | ↓ | darr | ↓ | downwards arrow |
8596 | ↔ | harr | ↔ | left right arrow |
8629 | ↵ | crarr | ↵ | downwards arrow with corner leftwardsc = carriage return [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8656 | ⇐ | lArr | ⇐ | leftwards double arrow [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8657 | ⇑ | uArr | ⇑ | upwards double arrow [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8658 | ⇒ | rArr | ⇒ | rightwards double arrow [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8659 | ⇓ | dArr | ⇓ | downwards double arrow [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8660 | ⇔ | hArr | ⇔ | left right double arrow [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8704 | ∀ | forall | ∀ | for all [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8706 | ∂ | part | ∂ | partial differential |
8707 | ∃ | exist | ∃ | there exists [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8709 | ∅ | empty | ∅ | empty set = null set = diameter [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8711 | ∇ | nabla | ∇ | nabla = backward difference [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8712 | ∈ | isin | ∈ | element of [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8713 | ∉ | notin | ∉ | not an element of [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8715 | ∋ | ni | ∋ | contains as member [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8719 | ∏ | prod | ∏ | n-ary product = product sign |
8721 | ∑ | sum | ∑ | n-ary sumation |
8722 | − | minus | − | minus sign |
8727 | ∗ | lowast | ∗ | asterisk operator [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8730 | √ | radic | √ | square root = radical sign |
8733 | ∝ | prop | ∝ | proportional to [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8734 | ∞ | infin | ∞ | infinity |
8736 | ∠ | ang | ∠ | angle [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8743 | ∧ | and | ∧ | logical and = wedge [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8744 | ∨ | or | ∨ | logical or = vee [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8745 | ∩ | cap | ∩ | intersection = cap |
8746 | ∪ | cup | ∪ | union = cup [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8747 | ∫ | int | ∫ | integral |
8756 | ∴ | there4 | ∴ | therefore [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8764 | ∼ | sim | ∼ | tilde operator = varies with = similar to [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8773 | ≅ | cong | ≅ | approximately equal to [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8776 | ≈ | asymp | ≈ | almost equal to = asymptotic to |
8800 | ≠ | ne | ≠ | not equal to |
8801 | ≡ | equiv | ≡ | identical to |
8804 | ≤ | le | ≤ | less-than or equal to |
8805 | ≥ | ge | ≥ | greater-than or equal to |
8834 | ⊂ | sub | ⊂ | subset of [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8835 | ⊃ | sup | ⊃ | superset of [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8836 | ⊄ | nsub | ⊄ | not a subset of [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8838 | ⊆ | sube | ⊆ | subset of or equal to [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8839 | ⊇ | supe | ⊇ | superset of or equal to [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8853 | ⊕ | oplus | ⊕ | circled plus = direct sum [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8855 | ⊗ | otimes | ⊗ | circled times = vector product [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8869 | ⊥ | perp | ⊥ | up tack = orthogonal to = perpendicular [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8901 | ⋅ | sdot | ⋅ | dot operator NOT the same character as middot or bull. [ IE, no, unless a Unicode font is selected. ] |
8968 | ⌈ | lceil | ⌈ | left ceiling = apl upstile |
8969 | ⌉ | rceil | ⌉ | right ceiling |
8970 | ⌊ | lfloor | ⌊ | left floor = apl downstile |
8971 | ⌋ | rfloor | ⌋ | right floor |
9001 | 〈 | lang | 〈 | left-pointing angle bracket = bra lang is NOT the same character as 'less than' [ IE, Chrome: No. FireFox, Opera, Yes. ] |
9002 | 〉 | rang | 〉 | right-pointing angle bracket = ket rang is NOT the same character as 'greater than' [ IE, Chrome: No. FireFox, Opera, Yes. ] |
9674 | ◊ | loz | ◊ | lozenge |
9824 | ♠ | spades | ♠ | black spade suit black here seems to mean filled as opposed to hollow |
9827 | ♣ | clubs | ♣ | black club suit = shamrock |
9829 | ♥ | hearts | ♥ | black heart suit = valentine |
9830 | ♦ | diams | ♦ | black diamond suit |
About ¡℘ƒϑϒ!: It means pfui! or fooey! I used a combination of one “invalid” character, one from the 300-series, and one from the 900-series. It could be like this: ℘ƒ∪Ÿ! but that breaks in IE, which is too stupid to understand a Weierstrass p.
—kv5r