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# entities [](https://npmjs.org/package/entities) [](https://npmjs.org/package/entities) [](http://travis-ci.org/fb55/entities) [](https://coveralls.io/r/fb55/entities)
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 fastes 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 safe 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 libary 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)
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