How to Escape Everything in a Block in HTML?


The process of creating web pages involves incorporating various special characters into HTML structures that have distinctive meanings. Nevertheless, some instances require designers to display symbols with speciality without browsers interpreting them as such; this is where escape characters come in handy. By using these codes correctly in an HTML block, designers can ensure proper rendering of all intended symbols on their web pages.

Basic Escape Characters in HTML

The escape character must be employed to escape characters within an HTML block. The escape character is denoted by the "&it" symbol, followed by a character code, and ends with another ">" symbol. For instance, the "<" symbol can be escaped by using "<", while the ">" symbol can be escaped using ">".

Method 1: Using HTML Entities

These unique codes depict characters that might otherwise have special significance in HTML. For instance, the less−than sign (<) can be represented using <, while the greater−than sign (>) can be represented using >.

Example

<html>
<body>
<p><b>This is</b><b>bold text</b> and this is <special character></p>
</body>
</html>

Method 2: Using a Preformatted Text Block

We can also use a preformatted text block to escape everything within a block. A preformatted text block preserves whitespace and doesn't interpret any HTML tags. We must wrap the content block between >pre> and >/pre> to use a preformatted text block.

The <pre> tag renders any HTML code as plain text, exempting it from execution.

Example

<html>
<body>
<pre>
This is <b>bold text</b> 
and this is <special character>
</pre>
</body>
</html>

Method 3: Using Backslash

We can also use a backslash () to escape special characters in HTML. This approach is commonly used to escape characters in inline CSS styles.

Example

<html>
<body>
<p style="font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">This is a backslash: \

</body> </html>

Method 4: Using <code> tag

The HTML <code> tag defines a piece of computer code. Text within this element is typically displayed in a fixed−width font, and white space is preserved. This tag can also escape everything in a block in HTML.

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Using the code tag</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <code>
      This is some text that needs to be escaped.
      <p>This should be displayed as plain text.</p>
      <script>alert("This script will not be executed.");</script>
    </code>
  </body>
</html>

Conclusion

Escape characters play an essential role in HTML development by displaying special symbols and characters correctly while preventing syntax errors or rendering problems. As a developer dealing with HTML code regularly, knowing how to utilise these character types − such as angle brackets, ampersands, and quotes − will drastically improve your troubleshooting capabilities when building new website pages.

The appropriate usage of escape characters enables developers to generate clean, valid HTML code that is visually displayed flawlessly across various browsers and devices.

Updated on: 10-Aug-2023

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