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Entities for Special Characters and Symbols

Not all characters will display across all browsers. The Hex version in particular does not appear to be very compatible across browsers. It is therefore a better idea to use the Entity or Decimal versions (which seem to work in IE 6.x). The numeric value of the entities is the Unicode codepoint of the character.

Character	You Type			Displays
Character	Entity	Decimal	Hex	Entity	Decimal	Hex
left single quotation mark	‘	‘	‘	‘	‘	‘
right single quotation mark	’	’	’	’	’	’
single low-9 quotation mark	&sbquo;	‚	‚	‚	‚	‚
left double quotation mark	“	“	“	“	“	“
right double quotation mark	”	”	”	”	”	”
double low-9 quotation mark	&bdquo;	„	„	„	„	„
Latin small f with hook = function = florin	&fnof;	ƒ	ƒ	ƒ	ƒ	ƒ
Greek capital letter alpha	Α	Α	Α	Α	Α	Α
Greek capital letter beta	Β	Β	Β	Β	Β	Β
Greek capital letter gamma	Γ	Γ	Γ	Γ	Γ	Γ
Greek capital letter delta	Δ	Δ	Δ	Δ	Δ	Δ
Greek capital letter epsilon	Ε	Ε	Ε	Ε	Ε	Ε
Greek capital letter zeta	Ζ	Ζ	Ζ	Ζ	Ζ	Ζ
Greek capital letter eta	Η	Η	Η	Η	Η	Η
Greek capital letter theta	Θ	Θ	Θ	Θ	Θ	Θ
Greek capital letter iota	Ι	Ι	Ι	Ι	Ι	Ι
Greek capital letter kappa	Κ	Κ	Κ	Κ	Κ	Κ
Greek capital letter lambda	Λ	Λ	Λ	Λ	Λ	Λ
Greek capital letter mu	Μ	Μ	Μ	Μ	Μ	Μ
Greek capital letter nu	Ν	Ν	Ν	Ν	Ν	Ν
Greek capital letter xi	Ξ	Ξ	Ξ	Ξ	Ξ	Ξ
Greek capital letter omicron	Ο	Ο	Ο	Ο	Ο	Ο
Greek capital letter pi	Π	Π	Π	Π	Π	Π
Greek capital letter rho	Ρ	Ρ	Ρ	Ρ	Ρ	Ρ
Greek capital letter sigma	Σ	Σ	Σ	Σ	Σ	Σ
Greek capital letter tau	Τ	Τ	Τ	Τ	Τ	Τ
Greek capital letter upsilon	Υ	Υ	Υ	Υ	Υ	Υ
Greek capital letter phi	Φ	Φ	Φ	Φ	Φ	Φ
Greek capital letter chi	Χ	Χ	Χ	Χ	Χ	Χ
Greek capital letter psi	Ψ	Ψ	Ψ	Ψ	Ψ	Ψ
Greek capital letter omega	Ω	Ω	Ω	Ω	Ω	Ω
Greek small letter alpha	α	α	α	α	α	α
Greek small letter beta	β	β	β	β	β	β
Greek small letter gamma	γ	γ	γ	γ	γ	γ
Greek small letter delta	δ	δ	δ	δ	δ	δ
Greek small letter epsilon	ε	ε	ε	ε	ε	ε
Greek small letter zeta	ζ	ζ	ζ	ζ	ζ	ζ
Greek small letter eta	η	η	η	η	η	η
Greek small letter theta	θ	θ	θ	θ	θ	θ
Greek small letter iota	ι	ι	ι	ι	ι	ι
Greek small letter kappa	κ	κ	κ	κ	κ	κ
Greek small letter lambda	λ	λ	λ	λ	λ	λ
Greek small letter mu	μ	μ	μ	μ	μ	μ
Greek small letter nu	ν	ν	ν	ν	ν	ν
Greek small letter xi	ξ	ξ	ξ	ξ	ξ	ξ
Greek small letter omicron	ο	ο	ο	ο	ο	ο
Greek small letter pi	π	π	π	π	π	π
Greek small letter rho	ρ	ρ	ρ	ρ	ρ	ρ
Greek small letter final sigma	&sigmaf;	ς	ς	ς	ς	ς
Greek small letter sigma	σ	σ	σ	σ	σ	σ
Greek small letter tau	τ	τ	τ	τ	τ	τ
Greek small letter upsilon	υ	υ	υ	υ	υ	υ
Greek small letter phi	φ	φ	φ	φ	φ	φ
Greek small letter chi	χ	χ	χ	χ	χ	χ
Greek small letter psi	ψ	ψ	ψ	ψ	ψ	ψ
Greek small letter omega	ω	ω	ω	ω	ω	ω
Greek small letter theta symbol	&thetasym;	ϑ	ϑ	ϑ	ϑ	ϑ
Greek upsilon with hook symbol	&upsih;	ϒ	ϒ	ϒ	ϒ	ϒ
Greek pi symbol	ϖ	ϖ	ϖ	ϖ	ϖ	ϖ
bullet = black small circle	•	•	•	•	•	•
horizontal ellipsis = three dot leader	…	…	…	…	…	…
prime = minutes = feet	′	′	′	′	′	′
double prime = seconds = inches	″	″	″	″	″	″
overline = spacing overscore	&oline;	‾	‾	‾	‾	‾
fraction slash	&frasl;	⁄	⁄	⁄	⁄	⁄
script capital P = power set = Weierstrass p	&weierp;	℘	℘	℘	℘	℘
blackletter capital I = imaginary part	&image;	ℑ	ℑ	ℑ	ℑ	ℑ
blackletter capital R = real part symbol	&real;	ℜ	ℜ	ℜ	ℜ	ℜ
trade mark sign	™	™	™	™	™	™
alef symbol = first transfinite cardinal	&alefsym;	ℵ	ℵ	ℵ	ℵ	ℵ
leftwards arrow	←	←	←	←	←	←
upwards arrow	↑	↑	↑	↑	↑	↑
rightwards arrow	→	→	→	→	→	→
downwards arrow	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓	↓
left right arrow	↔	↔	↔	↔	↔	↔
downwards arrow with corner leftwards = carriage return	&crarr;	↵	↵	↵	↵	&#x21B5
leftwards double arrow	⇐	⇐	⇐	⇐	⇐	⇐
upwards double arrow	&uArr;	⇑	⇑	⇑	⇑	⇑
rightwards double arrow	⇒	⇒	⇒	⇒	⇒	⇒
downwards double arrow	&dArr;	⇓	⇓	⇓	⇓	⇓
left right double arrow	⇔	⇔	⇔	⇔	⇔	⇔
for all	∀	∀	∀	∀	∀	∀
partial differential	∂	∂	∂	∂	∂	∂
there exists	∃	∃	∃	∃	∃	∃
empty set = null set = diameter	∅	∅	∅	∅	∅	∅
nabla = backward difference	∇	∇	∇	∇	∇	∇
element of	∈	∈	∈	∈	∈	∈
not an element of	∉	∉	∉	∉	∉	∉
contains as member	&ni;	∋	∋	∋	∋	∋
n-ary product = product sign	∏	∏	∏	∏	∏	∏
n-ary sumation	∑	∑	∑	∑	∑	∑
minus sign	−	−	−	−	−	−
asterisk operator	&lowast;	∗	∗	∗	∗	∗
square root = radical sign	√	√	√	√	√	√
proportional to	&prop;	∝	∝	∝	∝	∝
infinity	∞	∞	∞	∞	∞	∞
angle	&ang;	∠	∠	∠	∠	∠
logical and = wedge	&and;	∧	∧	∧	∧	∧
logical or = vee	&or;	∨	∨	∨	∨	∨
intersection = cap	∩	∩	∩	∩	∩	∩
union = cup	∪	∪	∪	∪	∪	∪
integral	∫	∫	∫	∫	∫	∫
therefore	&there4;	∴	∴	∴	∴	∴
tilde operator = varies with = similar to	&sim;	∼	∼	∼	∼	∼
approximately equal to	&cong;	≅	≅	≅	≅	≅
almost equal to = asymptotic to	≈	≈	≈	≈	≈	≈
not equal to	≠	≠	≠	≠	≠	≠
identical to	&equiv;	≡	≡	≡	≡	≡
less-than or equal to	≤	≤	≤	≤	≤	≤
greater-than or equal to	≥	≥	≥	≥	≥	≥
subset of	⊂	⊂	⊂	⊂	⊂	⊂
superset of	⊃	⊃	⊃	⊃	⊃	⊃
not a subset of	&nsub;	⊄	⊄	⊄	⊄	⊄
subset of or equal to	&sube;	⊆	⊆	⊆	⊆	⊆
superset of or equal to	&supe;	⊇	⊇	⊇	⊇	⊇
circled plus = direct sum	&oplus;	⊕	⊕	⊕	⊕	⊕
circled times = vector product	&otimes;	⊗	⊗	⊗	⊗	⊗
up tack = orthogonal to = perpendicular	&perp;	⊥	⊥	⊥	⊥	⊥
dot operator	⋅	⋅	⋅	⋅	⋅	⋅
left ceiling = APL upstile	&lceil;	⌈	⌈	⌈	⌈	⌈
right ceiling	&rceil;	⌉	⌉	⌉	⌉	⌉
left floor = APL downstile	&lfloor;	⌊	⌊	⌊	⌊	⌊
right floor	&rfloor;	⌋	⌋	⌋	⌋	⌋
left-pointing angle bracket = bra	&lang;	〈	〈	⟨	〈	〈
right-pointing angle bracket = ket	&rang;	〉	〉	⟩	〉	〉
lozenge	&loz;	◊	◊	◊	◊	◊
black spade suit	&spades;	♠	♠	♠	♠	♠
black club suit = shamrock	&clubs;	♣	♣	♣	♣	♣
black heart suit = valentine	&hearts;	♥	♥	♥	♥	♥
black diamond suit	&diams;	♦	♦	♦	♦	♦

The original version of this table is WDG's Entities for Symbols and Greek Letters page.

-- Contributors: AmandaSmith, PeterThoeny

Comments & Questions about this Supplemental Document Topic

I added a SupplementalDocHeader, I hope this is appropriate. If not, feel free to remove.

-- AmandaSmith - 20 Feb 2006

It's worth pointing out that the numeric versions of these 'character references' are just the Unicode codepoint of the character (even if the web page is using a non-Unicode character). Once we have real UnicodeSupport, sites using alphabetic languages (i.e. not just Chinese, Japanese etc) can start using UTF-8 as the site character set, and there won't be much need to use these XML entities (aka character references).

Generally, the decimal numeric character references are the most compatible with various browsers.

Also, there's a missing TWiki feature here: in SVN:lib/TWiki.pm for DEVELOP at line 1947, it should handle the &x39F; hex format, but doesn't. Something like the following should work (not fully tested but works from command line):

       $text =~ s/&#x?([0-9a-f]+);/chr($1)/ige;

Character references can cause problems with Codev.RSS and Atom feeds, since the HTML content of the page used to form the feed is actually in two character sets - so it's important to strip out or convert the Unicode characters to something else, or (more usefully) convert the entire page to UTF-8 for use in the feed.

It's debatable as to why entityDecode exists at all, probably something to do with RSS, but for other uses of TWiki it would be best not to decode the entities at all in TWiki.

For other discussion on NCRs, see Google:twiki+numeric+character+reference.

-- RichardDonkin - 21 Feb 2006

Yes, I've skimmed a number of articles on this topic already. But the fact remains that a lot of people at my installation will need to use a lot of special characters and I'll have to provide support for them now, so I went ahead and put this together. smile

-- AmandaSmith - 21 Feb 2006

Thanks for contributing this documentation. It might help to add some links to this topic to find it, such as links from other SupplementalDocument topics, and Interwiki links from the official docs.

While we are at it, it might help to add two more tables to this topic:

Latin-1 Entities, http://d8ngmj9cx64aph58vr1g.roads-uae.org/reference/html40/entities/latin1.html
Special Entities, http://d8ngmj9cx64aph58vr1g.roads-uae.org/reference/html40/entities/special.html

-- PeterThoeny - 22 Feb 2006

Topic revision: r7 - 2006-04-13 - FranzJosefSilli

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