5 min read
2026-01-18
HTML encoding is used extensively in web development and content management.
When a user enters data in a form, an attacker may try to inject a malicious script. HTML encoding turns tags into safe text.
Content management systems encode user comments and posts for safe display on pages.
To show HTML code on a web page (as in documentation), all tags must be encoded, otherwise the browser will interpret them.
When composing HTML emails, special characters in recipient data must be encoded for correct display.
XML and RSS feeds require encoding of special characters in content for document validity.
Characters from different alphabets and special symbols are more reliably represented through numeric entities for maximum compatibility.
See also: URL Encoding, Unicode Lookup, Base64 Encoding