Convert PHP entities like – or š to their applicable characters

Question

is there a way how to convert HTML entities to their applicable characters. Something similar to html_entity_decode()?
I\'m trying to make ordinary text wit

Answer 1

I originally wrote the code that's pasted into Pekka's answer - it's nearly completely unnecessary except in specific cases (mostly for removing non-existent entities, which html_entity_decode() doesn't touch, or for converting to numeric entities if you're making XML that isn't UTF-8 encoded).

TinyMCE has an option to return raw (not HTML-encoded) output, so that should be your first point of call. Look at this entry in the TinyMCE manual for more info on that.