| # entities [](https://npmjs.org/package/entities) [](https://npmjs.org/package/entities) [](https://github.com/fb55/entities/actions/workflows/nodejs-test.yml) | |
| Encode & decode HTML & XML entities with ease & speed. | |
| ## Features | |
| - 😇 Tried and true: `entities` is used by many popular libraries; eg. | |
| [`htmlparser2`](https://github.com/fb55/htmlparser2), the official | |
| [AWS SDK](https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-js-v3) and | |
| [`commonmark`](https://github.com/commonmark/commonmark.js) use it to | |
| process HTML entities. | |
| - ⚡️ Fast: `entities` is the fastest library for decoding HTML entities (as | |
| of April 2022); see [performance](#performance). | |
| - 🎛 Configurable: Get an output tailored for your needs. You are fine with | |
| UTF8? That'll save you some bytes. Prefer to only have ASCII characters? We | |
| can do that as well! | |
| ## How to… | |
| ### …install `entities` | |
| npm install entities | |
| ### …use `entities` | |
| ```javascript | |
| const entities = require("entities"); | |
| // Encoding | |
| entities.escapeUTF8("& ü"); // "& ü" | |
| entities.encodeXML("& ü"); // "& ü" | |
| entities.encodeHTML("& ü"); // "& ü" | |
| // Decoding | |
| entities.decodeXML("asdf & ÿ ü '"); // "asdf & ÿ ü '" | |
| entities.decodeHTML("asdf & ÿ ü '"); // "asdf & ÿ ü '" | |
| ``` | |
| ## Performance | |
| This is how `entities` compares to other libraries on a very basic benchmark | |
| (see `scripts/benchmark.ts`, for 10,000,000 iterations; **lower is better**): | |
| | Library | Version | `decode` perf | `encode` perf | `escape` perf | | |
| | -------------- | ------- | ------------- | ------------- | ------------- | | |
| | entities | `3.0.1` | 1.418s | 6.786s | 2.196s | | |
| | html-entities | `2.3.2` | 2.530s | 6.829s | 2.415s | | |
| | he | `1.2.0` | 5.800s | 24.237s | 3.624s | | |
| | parse-entities | `3.0.0` | 9.660s | N/A | N/A | | |
| --- | |
| ## FAQ | |
| > What methods should I actually use to encode my documents? | |
| If your target supports UTF-8, the `escapeUTF8` method is going to be your best | |
| choice. Otherwise, use either `encodeHTML` or `encodeXML` based on whether | |
| you're dealing with an HTML or an XML document. | |
| You can have a look at the options for the `encode` and `decode` methods to see | |
| everything you can configure. | |
| > When should I use strict decoding? | |
| When strict decoding, entities not terminated with a semicolon will be ignored. | |
| This is helpful for decoding entities in legacy environments. | |
| > Why should I use `entities` instead of alternative modules? | |
| As of April 2022, `entities` is a bit faster than other modules. Still, this is | |
| not a very differentiated space and other modules can catch up. | |
| **More importantly**, you might already have `entities` in your dependency graph | |
| (as a dependency of eg. `cheerio`, or `htmlparser2`), and including it directly | |
| might not even increase your bundle size. The same is true for other entity | |
| libraries, so have a look through your `node_modules` directory! | |
| > Does `entities` support tree shaking? | |
| Yes! `entities` ships as both a CommonJS and a ES module. Note that for best | |
| results, you should not use the `encode` and `decode` functions, as they wrap | |
| around a number of other functions, all of which will remain in the bundle. | |
| Instead, use the functions that you need directly. | |
| --- | |
| ## Acknowledgements | |
| This library wouldn't be possible without the work of these individuals. Thanks | |
| to | |
| - [@mathiasbynens](https://github.com/mathiasbynens) for his explanations | |
| about character encodings, and his library `he`, which was one of the | |
| inspirations for `entities` | |
| - [@inikulin](https://github.com/inikulin) for his work on optimized tries for | |
| decoding HTML entities for the `parse5` project | |
| - [@mdevils](https://github.com/mdevils) for taking on the challenge of | |
| producing a quick entity library with his `html-entities` library. | |
| `entities` would be quite a bit slower if there wasn't any competition. | |
| Right now `entities` is on top, but we'll see how long that lasts! | |
| --- | |
| License: BSD-2-Clause | |
| ## Security contact information | |
| To report a security vulnerability, please use the | |
| [Tidelift security contact](https://tidelift.com/security). Tidelift will | |
| coordinate the fix and disclosure. | |
| ## `entities` for enterprise | |
| Available as part of the Tidelift Subscription | |
| The maintainers of `entities` and thousands of other packages are working with | |
| Tidelift to deliver commercial support and maintenance for the open source | |
| dependencies you use to build your applications. Save time, reduce risk, and | |
| improve code health, while paying the maintainers of the exact dependencies you | |
| use. | |
| [Learn more.](https://tidelift.com/subscription/pkg/npm-entities?utm_source=npm-entities&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=enterprise&utm_term=repo) | |