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.

Actually, in XML at least, the term "character entity reference" is incorrect. The proper term is "character reference". Although in popular usage character references are often called "entity references" or even "entities", this usage is wrong. A character reference is a reference to a character, not to an entity.

See also

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

External links

• Entities Table
• A Simple Character Entity Chart
• Browser Support for Entities (currently / not available)