Php/docs/function.htmlspecialchars-decode

• PHP Manual
• String Functions
• Convert special HTML entities back to characters

htmlspecialchars_decode

(PHP 5 >= 5.1.0, PHP 7)

htmlspecialchars_decode — Convert special HTML entities back to characters

Description

htmlspecialchars_decode ( string $string [, int $flags = ENT_COMPAT ] ) : string

This function is the opposite of htmlspecialchars(). It converts special HTML entities back to characters.

The converted entities are: &, " (when ENT_NOQUOTES is not set), ' (when ENT_QUOTES is set), < and >.

Parameters

string

The string to decode.

flags

A bitmask of one or more of the following flags, which specify how to handle quotes and which document type to use. The default is ENT_COMPAT | ENT_HTML401.

Available flags constants

Constant Name	Description
ENT_COMPAT	Will convert double-quotes and leave single-quotes alone.
ENT_QUOTES	Will convert both double and single quotes.
ENT_NOQUOTES	Will leave both double and single quotes unconverted.
ENT_HTML401	Handle code as HTML 4.01.
ENT_XML1	Handle code as XML 1.
ENT_XHTML	Handle code as XHTML.
ENT_HTML5	Handle code as HTML 5.

Return Values

Returns the decoded string.

Examples

Example #1 A htmlspecialchars_decode() example

<?php$str = "<p>this -&gt; &quot;</p>\n";echo htmlspecialchars_decode($str);// note that here the quotes aren't convertedecho htmlspecialchars_decode($str, ENT_NOQUOTES);?>

The above example will output:

<p>this -> "</p>
<p>this -> &quot;</p>

See Also

• htmlspecialchars() - Convert special characters to HTML entities
• html_entity_decode() - Convert HTML entities to their corresponding characters
• get_html_translation_table() - Returns the translation table used by htmlspecialchars and htmlentities