PHP 8 reference · String Functions

PHP html_entity_decode() Function

Convert HTML entities such as &, < and é back into the characters they stand for.

PHP 8 Since 4.3

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Syntax

html_entity_decode(string $string, int $flags = ENT_QUOTES | ENT_SUBSTITUTE | ENT_HTML401, ?string $encoding = null): string

Parameter	Description
`string`	The input string.
`flags` optional	Which quotes and document type to handle. Default: `ENT_QUOTES \| ENT_SUBSTITUTE \| ENT_HTML401`
`encoding` optional	The character encoding; defaults to UTF-8.

The decoded string.

Decode named entitiesTry it yourself

<?php
echo html_entity_decode("Fish &amp; Chips &ndash; &pound;9"), "\n";

Output

Fish & Chips – £9

Numeric entities and tagsTry it yourself

<?php
echo html_entity_decode("It&#039;s &lt;b&gt;bold&lt;/b&gt;"), "\n";

Output

It's <b>bold</b>

Version	Change
PHP 4.3	Added
PHP 8.1	The default flags became `ENT_QUOTES \| ENT_SUBSTITUTE \| ENT_HTML401`, so `'` is decoded by default.

htmlspecialchars() · Convert &, <, >, " and ' to HTML entities so user text is shown as text, not run as HTML. The main defence against XSS.
strip_tags() · Remove HTML and PHP tags from a string, keeping the text. You can allow some tags, but it's no XSS protection.
PHP Strings · tutorial