reverse htmlspecialchars

Question

this may seem like a simple problem but I couldn\'t find it in the archives.

how does one reverse the effects of htmlspecialchars?

I tried something like thi

Answer 1

You need htmlspecialchars_decode(). See PHP docu on this.

$html = htmlspecialchars_decode( $html, ENT_NOQUOTES );

Answer 2

example :

echo htmlspecialchars_decode(htmlspecialchars('your "strange" text with characters like !"/$%?&*'))

it will echo : your "strange" text with characters like !"/$%?&*

this is an example of encode/decode. it works.

Answer 3

From what I understood, you need htmlspecialchars_decode - Docu

Answer 4

Use htmlspecialchars_decode()

<?php
$str = "<p>this -&gt; &quot;</p>\n";

echo htmlspecialchars_decode($str);

// note that here the quotes aren't converted
echo htmlspecialchars_decode($str, ENT_NOQUOTES);
?>

Reference - PHP Official Doc