Character entity reference

In the markup languages SGML, HTML, XHTML and XML, a character entity reference is a reference to a particular kind of named entity that has been predefined or explicitly declared in a Document Type Definition (DTD). The "replacement text" of the entity consists of a single character from the Universal Character Set/Unicode. The purpose of a character entity reference is to provide a way to refer to a character that is not universally encodable.

Although in popular usage character references are often called "entity references" or even "entities", this usage is wrong.^{[citation needed]} A character reference is a reference to a character, not to an entity. Entity reference refers to the content of a named entity. An entity declaration is created by using the <!ENTITY name "value"> syntax in a document type definition (DTD) or XML schema. Then, the name defined in the entity declaration is subsequently used in the XML. When used in the XML, it is called an entity reference.

Concepts

XML has two relevant concepts:

Predefined entity

See also: Predefined entities in XML.

A "predefined entity reference" is a reference to one of the special characters denoted by:

name	value	character	code (dec)	meaning
quot	"	"	x22 (34)	(double) quotation mark
amp	&	&	x26 (38)	ampersand
apos	'	'	x27 (39)	apostrophe (= apostrophe-quote)
lt	&#60;	<	x3C (60)	less-than sign
gt	&#62;	>	x3E (62)	greater-than sign

Character coding

See also: Numeric character reference

A "character reference" is a construct such as   or equally   that refers to a character by means of its numeric Unicode code point, i.e. here, the character code 160 (or xA0 in hexa) refers the   character, the non-breaking space.

See also

• SGML entity
• Character encodings in HTML
• Numeric character reference
• List of XML and HTML character entity references

External links

• XML Entity Definitions for Characters (W3C Recommendation)
• Entities Table
• A Simple Character Entity Chart
• A character entity chart with images for entities
• A Clear and Quick Reference to HTML Symbol Entities Codes
• XHTML Character Entity Reference

This World Wide Web-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Internet standards HTML XML World Wide Web stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную? Aurora Energy Gaila Look at other dictionaries: List of XML and HTML character entity references — In SGML, HTML and XML documents, the logical constructs known as character data and attribute values consist of sequences of characters, in which each character can manifest directly (representing itself), or can be represented by a series of… …   Wikipedia Entity (disambiguation) — Entity may refer to:* Entity, a unit * a part of an Entity relationship model or Entity relationship diagram * Character entity reference in HTML, XML or SGML * Entity (netlabel), a Belgian netlabel specialising in experimental electronic musicIn …   Wikipedia Character encodings in HTML — For a list of character entity references, see List of XML and HTML character entity references. HTML HTML and HTML5 Dynamic HTML XHTML XHTML Mobile Profile and C HTML Canvas element Character encodings Document Object Model Font family HTML… …   Wikipedia SGML entity — In SGML and its derived markup languages HTML and XML, an entity is a named body of data associated with a document, or the unnamed document entity itself. Once defined, a named entity can be referenced any number of times within the document,… …   Wikipedia Numeric character reference — A numeric character reference (NCR) is a common markup construct used in SGML and other SGML related markup languages such as HTML and XML. It consists of a short sequence of characters that, in turn, represent a single character from the… …   Wikipedia entity — entity, being, creature, individual, person are comparable when meaning something which has real and independent existence. Entity, the most consistently abstract of these terms, implies such existence not only in the actual world but also in the …   New Dictionary of Synonyms HTML-Entity — Die Artikel Entitäten in Auszeichnungssprachen und Zeichen Entität Referenz überschneiden sich thematisch. Hilf mit, die Artikel besser voneinander abzugrenzen oder zu vereinigen. Beteilige dich dazu an der Diskussion über diese Überschneidungen …   Deutsch Wikipedia Character (computing) — In computer and machine based telecommunications terminology, a character is a unit of information that roughly corresponds to a grapheme, grapheme like unit, or symbol, such as in an alphabet or syllabary in the written form of a natural… …   Wikipedia HTML decimal character rendering — Not all web browsers or email clients used by receivers of HTML documents, or text editors used by authors of HTML documents, will be able to render all HTML characters. Most modern web browsers are able to display many more characters than the… …   Wikipedia Precomposed character — A precomposed character (alternatively composite character or decomposable character) is a Unicode entity that can be defined as a combination of two or more other characters. A precomposed character may typically represent a letter with a… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”