HTML Entity Decode [duplicate]

Answer 1

Here is a full version

function htmldecode(s){
    window.HTML_ESC_MAP = {
    "nbsp":" ","iexcl":"¡","cent":"¢","pound":"£","curren":"¤","yen":"¥","brvbar":"¦","sect":"§","uml":"¨","copy":"©","ordf":"ª","laquo":"«","not":"¬","reg":"®","macr":"¯","deg":"°","plusmn":"±","sup2":"²","sup3":"³","acute":"´","micro":"µ","para":"¶","middot":"·","cedil":"¸","sup1":"¹","ordm":"º","raquo":"»","frac14":"¼","frac12":"½","frac34":"¾","iquest":"¿","Agrave":"À","Aacute":"Á","Acirc":"Â","Atilde":"Ã","Auml":"Ä","Aring":"Å","AElig":"Æ","Ccedil":"Ç","Egrave":"È","Eacute":"É","Ecirc":"Ê","Euml":"Ë","Igrave":"Ì","Iacute":"Í","Icirc":"Î","Iuml":"Ï","ETH":"Ð","Ntilde":"Ñ","Ograve":"Ò","Oacute":"Ó","Ocirc":"Ô","Otilde":"Õ","Ouml":"Ö","times":"×","Oslash":"Ø","Ugrave":"Ù","Uacute":"Ú","Ucirc":"Û","Uuml":"Ü","Yacute":"Ý","THORN":"Þ","szlig":"ß","agrave":"à","aacute":"á","acirc":"â","atilde":"ã","auml":"ä","aring":"å","aelig":"æ","ccedil":"ç","egrave":"è","eacute":"é","ecirc":"ê","euml":"ë","igrave":"ì","iacute":"í","icirc":"î","iuml":"ï","eth":"ð","ntilde":"ñ","ograve":"ò","oacute":"ó","ocirc":"ô","otilde":"õ","ouml":"ö","divide":"÷","oslash":"ø","ugrave":"ù","uacute":"ú","ucirc":"û","uuml":"ü","yacute":"ý","thorn":"þ","yuml":"ÿ","fnof":"ƒ","Alpha":"Α","Beta":"Β","Gamma":"Γ","Delta":"Δ","Epsilon":"Ε","Zeta":"Ζ","Eta":"Η","Theta":"Θ","Iota":"Ι","Kappa":"Κ","Lambda":"Λ","Mu":"Μ","Nu":"Ν","Xi":"Ξ","Omicron":"Ο","Pi":"Π","Rho":"Ρ","Sigma":"Σ","Tau":"Τ","Upsilon":"Υ","Phi":"Φ","Chi":"Χ","Psi":"Ψ","Omega":"Ω","alpha":"α","beta":"β","gamma":"γ","delta":"δ","epsilon":"ε","zeta":"ζ","eta":"η","theta":"θ","iota":"ι","kappa":"κ","lambda":"λ","mu":"μ","nu":"ν","xi":"ξ","omicron":"ο","pi":"π","rho":"ρ","sigmaf":"ς","sigma":"σ","tau":"τ","upsilon":"υ","phi":"φ","chi":"χ","psi":"ψ","omega":"ω","thetasym":"ϑ","upsih":"ϒ","piv":"ϖ","bull":"•","hellip":"…","prime":"′","Prime":"″","oline":"‾","frasl":"⁄","weierp":"℘","image":"ℑ","real":"ℜ","trade":"™","alefsym":"ℵ","larr":"←","uarr":"↑","rarr":"→","darr":"↓","harr":"↔","crarr":"↵","lArr":"⇐","uArr":"⇑","rArr":"⇒","dArr":"⇓","hArr":"⇔","forall":"∀","part":"∂","exist":"∃","empty":"∅","nabla":"∇","isin":"∈","notin":"∉","ni":"∋","prod":"∏","sum":"∑","minus":"−","lowast":"∗","radic":"√","prop":"∝","infin":"∞","ang":"∠","and":"∧","or":"∨","cap":"∩","cup":"∪","int":"∫","there4":"∴","sim":"∼","cong":"≅","asymp":"≈","ne":"≠","equiv":"≡","le":"≤","ge":"≥","sub":"⊂","sup":"⊃","nsub":"⊄","sube":"⊆","supe":"⊇","oplus":"⊕","otimes":"⊗","perp":"⊥","sdot":"⋅","lceil":"⌈","rceil":"⌉","lfloor":"⌊","rfloor":"⌋","lang":"⟨","rang":"⟩","loz":"◊","spades":"♠","clubs":"♣","hearts":"♥","diams":"♦","\"":"quot","amp":"&","lt":"<","gt":">","OElig":"Œ","oelig":"œ","Scaron":"Š","scaron":"š","Yuml":"Ÿ","circ":"ˆ","tilde":"˜","ndash":"–","mdash":"—","lsquo":"‘","rsquo":"’","sbquo":"‚","ldquo":"“","rdquo":"”","bdquo":"„","dagger":"†","Dagger":"‡","permil":"‰","lsaquo":"‹","rsaquo":"›","euro":"€"};
    if(!window.HTML_ESC_MAP_EXP)
        window.HTML_ESC_MAP_EXP = new RegExp("&("+Object.keys(HTML_ESC_MAP).join("|")+");","g");
    return s?s.replace(window.HTML_ESC_MAP_EXP,function(x){
        return HTML_ESC_MAP[x.substring(1,x.length-1)]||x;
    }):s;
}

Usage

htmldecode("∑ >€");

Answer 2

Here's a quick method that doesn't require creating a div, and decodes the "most common" HTML escaped chars:

function decodeHTMLEntities(text) {
    var entities = [
        ['amp', '&'],
        ['apos', '\''],
        ['#x27', '\''],
        ['#x2F', '/'],
        ['#39', '\''],
        ['#47', '/'],
        ['lt', '<'],
        ['gt', '>'],
        ['nbsp', ' '],
        ['quot', '"']
    ];

    for (var i = 0, max = entities.length; i < max; ++i) 
        text = text.replace(new RegExp('&'+entities[i][0]+';', 'g'), entities[i][1]);

    return text;
}

Answer 3

I know I'm a bit late to the game, but I thought I might provide the following snippet as an example of how I decode HTML entities using jQuery:

var varTitleE = "Chris' corner";
var varTitleD = $("<div/>").html(varTitleE).text();

console.log(varTitleE + " vs. " + varTitleD);​​​​​​​​​​​

Don't forget to fire-up your inspector/firebug to see the console results -- or simply replace console.log(...) w/alert(...)

That said, here's what my console via the Google Chrome inspector read:

Chris' corner vs. Chris' corner

Answer 4

You could try something like:

var Title = $('<textarea />').html("Chris&apos; corner").text();
console.log(Title);

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

JS Fiddle.

A more interactive version:

$('form').submit(function() {
  var theString = $('#string').val();
  var varTitle = $('<textarea />').html(theString).text();
  $('#output').text(varTitle);
  return false;
});

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<form action="#" method="post">
  <fieldset>
    <label for="string">Enter a html-encoded string to decode</label>
    <input type="text" name="string" id="string" />
  </fieldset>
  <fieldset>
    <input type="submit" value="decode" />
  </fieldset>
</form>

<div id="output"></div>

JS Fiddle.

Answer 5

To add yet another "inspired by Robert K" to the list, here is another safe version which does not strip HTML tags. Instead of running the whole string through the HTML parser, it pulls out only the entities and converts those.

var decodeEntities = (function() {
    // this prevents any overhead from creating the object each time
    var element = document.createElement('div');

    // regular expression matching HTML entities
    var entity = /&(?:#x[a-f0-9]+|#[0-9]+|[a-z0-9]+);?/ig;

    return function decodeHTMLEntities(str) {
        // find and replace all the html entities
        str = str.replace(entity, function(m) {
            element.innerHTML = m;
            return element.textContent;
        });

        // reset the value
        element.textContent = '';

        return str;
    }
})();