PHP htmlspecialchars_decode Function

PHP htmlspecialchars_decode Function : It converts Some HTML entities to its characters equivalent. This function is opposite of htmlspecialchars() function. We are going to explain this example with example and demo.

PHP htmlspecialchars_decode Function Syntax

It Converts the following entities only –

• & = &(ampersand)
• " = ” (double quote)
• ' = ‘ (single quote)
• < = < (less than)
• > = > (greater than)

Here is syntax for the function htmlspecialchars_decode –

htmlspecialchars_decode(string,flags)

Input Parameters

• string: String to be converted.
• flag:flag is optional . This is basically used to specify how to handle the quotes and which document type use.

Here are following flags available-

• ENT_COMPAT : This is default. Converts only Double Quotes
• ENT_QUOTES : This Converts Both Single and Double Quotes.
• ENT_NOQUOTES : Converts neither Single nor Double Quotes.
• ENT_HTML401 : Handle code as HTML 4.01.
• ENT_XML1 : Handle code as XML 1.
• ENT_XHTML : Handle code as XHTML.
• ENT_HTML5 : Handle code as HTML 5.

Return Values

This function returns the converted string.

PHP htmlspecialchars_decode Function Example-

Let’s understand the above function with example and demo –

$string = "<p>Hello World -> "</p>";
echo htmlspecialchars_decode($string);

The above example will produce the following output-

Html Output

Browser Output

$string = "<p>Hello ' World ->Learn & More Here  "</p>";
echo htmlspecialchars_decode($string, ENT_COMPAT)."<br/>";
echo htmlspecialchars_decode($string, ENT_QUOTES)."<br/>";
echo htmlspecialchars_decode($string, ENT_NOQUOTES)."<br/>";

The above example will produce the following output-

Html Output

Browser Output