How to use HTML special characters

HTML special characters are used to display elements that are not present on the regular keyboard. These may be different signs, for example, copyrights or paragraph designations. Special characters always begin with an element called "ampersand" and end with a semicolon. In this article, we'll look at a few basic groups of special HTML characters.

Structure

As mentioned above, the html special characters always start with the "ampersand" character. Not everyone knows this element, but do not get scared. For sure, many know the "&" icon - that's what the ampersand looks like. You can apply it using the keyboard shortcut Shift + 7 (with the English layout). Perhaps you know this element under a different name. As the semicolon looks, I hope everyone knows. "& Nbsp;" is one example of writing special characters in HTML.

Common special characters

Under this category are the most frequently used symbols. One of them you've already seen before - "& nbsp;", which means an inextricable gap. You probably have often met and here is such a sign: "©", which will denote copyright (or authorship). It can be seen at the very bottom of many sites, followed by the name of the author or company. This group also includes such interesting elements as fractional numbers. For example: ¼ - "& frac14;" or ½ - "& frac12;" We all saw a dollar sign on the keyboard , and have you ever met the euro? In HTML, special characters allow authors to provide such an element to users, and all thanks to the entry "& euro;". This group includes signs such as degrees (°), plus-minus (±), trade mark (& trade;), function (& fnof;), multiplication (×), division (& divide;), etc., E.

Punctuation special characters

This group contains special characters that emulate punctuation marks. For example, the ellipsis is an "& hellip;" or a long dash - "& mdash;". Let it not be surprising to you that many characters from the group in question can be typed on the keyboard. After all, then, in fact, the whole sense of using such elements is lost. Further in the article there will be a logical explanation for this.

Arrows

Sometimes developers of web pages need to add very rare HTML special characters. Arrows - these are the elements used for the logical construction of navigation or just for decoration. This group consists of five different symbols. Namely: the arrow to the left - "," to the right - "", up - "", down "d", simultaneously to the left and to the right - "harr".

additional information

Of course, there are other special HTML characters. But there is no sense in describing each of them separately, as this has already been done by specialized directories. Let's return to the question of why special characters such as quotes (& lsquo;), dashes (& ndash;), non-breaking spaces (& nbsp;), etc. are needed. They are used to correctly display items by the browser. After all, the interpreter can misunderstand the author. For example, you want to place a description of the

tag on your site. If you put this particular entry, the browser will think that the table starts here, and that this is not just text. To avoid misunderstandings, you must use special HTML characters. In this case, the record will be as follows: & lt; (Denotes less than) table & gt; (Indicates the sign "more"). Other similar elements are used for the same reasons. For example, "& nbsp;" is used when you need to add extra spaces, as the browser, as a rule, ignores most of them.