Come sapete le entity sono una particolare forma di codifica usata in HTML per individuare alcuni caratteri speciali in maniera indipendente dalla tastiera e dal sistema operativo che si sta utilizzando. Le prime definizioni delle entity sono state introdotte nella versione HTML 2.0, le successive nella 3.2. Per questo e per tanti altri motivi che non è il caso di discutere qui, non tutti i browser supportano tutte le entity.
Quelle che riporto nella prossima pagina sono tabelle riassuntive delle principali entity e di altri caratteri speciali che possono rivelarsi utilissimi durante lo sviluppo di applicazioni per il web, specie quando si ha a che fare con versioni multilingue di interfacce HTML. Le tabelle provengono da un sito Internet inglese di cui ho perso qualsiasi riferimento, se qualcuno avesse modo di rintracciarne la fonte sarei lieto di poterla citare.
HTML Character Entities
Useful? | Entity Encoding |
Looks Like |
Explanation of Symbol |
| no-break space | ||
¡ | ¡ | inverted exclamation mark | |
¢ | ¢ | cent sign | |
£ | £ | pound sterling sign | |
¤ | ¤ | general currency sign | |
¥ | ¥ | yen sign | |
¦ | ¦ | broken (vertical) bar | |
§ | § | section sign | |
¨ | ¨ | umlaut (dieresis) | |
© | © | copyright sign | |
ª | ª | ordinal indicator, feminine | |
« | « | angle quotation mark, left | |
¬ | ¬ | not sign | |
­ | | soft hyphen | |
® | ® | registered sign | |
¯ | ¯ | macron | |
° | ° | degree sign | |
± | ± | plus-or-minus sign | |
² | ² | superscript two | |
³ | ³ | superscript three | |
´ | ´ | acute accent | |
µ | µ | micro sign | |
¶ | ¶ | pilcrow (paragraph sign) | |
· | · | middle dot | |
¸ | ¸ | cedilla | |
¹ | ¹ | superscript one | |
º | º | ordinal indicator, masculine | |
» | » | angle quotation mark, right | |
¼ | ¼ | fraction one-quarter | |
½ | ½ | fraction one-half | |
¾ | ¾ | fraction three-quarters | |
¿ | ¿ | inverted question mark | |
À | À | capital A, grave accent | |
Á | Á | capital A, acute accent | |
 |  | capital A, circumflex accent | |
à | à | capital A, tilde | |
Ä | Ä | capital A, dieresis or umlaut mark | |
Å | Å | capital A, ring | |
Æ | Æ | capital AE diphthong (ligature) | |
Ç | Ç | capital C, cedilla | |
È | È | capital E, grave accent | |
É | É | capital E, acute accent | |
Ê | Ê | capital E, circumflex accent | |
Ë | Ë | capital E, dieresis or umlaut mark | |
Ì | Ì | capital I, grave accent | |
Í | Í | capital I, acute accent | |
Î | Î | capital I, circumflex accent | |
Ï | Ï | capital I, dieresis or umlaut mark | |
Ð | Ð | capital Eth, Icelandic | |
Ñ | Ñ | capital N, tilde | |
Ò | Ò | capital O, grave accent | |
Ó | Ó | capital O, acute accent | |
Ô | Ô | capital O, circumflex accent | |
Õ | Õ | capital O, tilde | |
Ö | Ö | capital O, dieresis or umlaut mark | |
× | × | multiply sign | |
Ø | Ø | capital O, slash | |
Ù | Ù | capital U, grave accent | |
Ú | Ú | capital U, acute accent | |
Û | Û | capital U, circumflex accent | |
Ü | Ü | capital U, dieresis or umlaut mark | |
Ý | Ý | capital Y, acute accent | |
Þ | Þ | capital THORN, Icelandic | |
ß | ß | small sharp s, German (sz ligature) | |
à | à | small a, grave accent | |
á | á | small a, acute accent | |
â | â | small a, circumflex accent | |
ã | ã | small a, tilde | |
ä | ä | small a, dieresis or umlaut mark | |
å | å | small a, ring | |
æ | æ | small ae diphthong (ligature) | |
ç | ç | small c, cedilla | |
è | è | small e, grave accent | |
é | é | small e, acute accent | |
ê | ê | small e, circumflex accent | |
ë | ë | small e, dieresis or umlaut mark | |
ì | ì | small i, grave accent | |
í | í | small i, acute accent | |
î | î | small i, circumflex accent | |
ï | ï | small i, dieresis or umlaut mark | |
ð | ð | small eth, Icelandic | |
ñ | ñ | small n, tilde | |
ò | ò | small o, grave accent | |
ó | ó | small o, acute accent | |
ô | ô | small o, circumflex accent | |
õ | õ | small o, tilde | |
ö | ö | small o, dieresis or umlaut mark | |
÷ | ÷ | divide sign | |
ø | ø | small o, slash | |
ù | ù | small u, grave accent | |
ú | ú | small u, acute accent | |
û | û | small u, circumflex accent | |
ü | ü | small u, dieresis or umlaut mark | |
ý | ý | small y, acute accent | |
þ | þ | small thorn, Icelandic | |
ÿ | ÿ | small y, dieresis or umlaut mark |
Controls and Basic Latin
Useful? | Entity Encoding |
Looks Like |
Explanation of Symbol |
" | “ | quotation mark, apl quote | |
& | & | ampersand | |
< | < | less-than sign | |
> | > | greater-than sign |
Mathematical, Greek and Symbolic characters for HTML
Widely Supported |
Entity Encoding |
Looks Like |
Explanation of Symbol |
ƒ | ƒ | latin small f with hook | |
Α | Α | greek capital letter alpha | |
Β | Β | greek capital letter beta | |
Γ | Γ | greek capital letter gamma | |
Δ | Δ | greek capital letter delta | |
Ε | Ε | greek capital letter epsilon | |
Ζ | Ζ | greek capital letter zeta | |
Η | Η | greek capital letter eta | |
Θ | Θ | greek capital letter theta | |
Ι | Ι | greek capital letter iota | |
Κ | Κ | greek capital letter kappa | |
Λ | Λ | greek capital letter lambda | |
Μ | Μ | greek capital letter mu | |
Ν | Ν | greek capital letter nu | |
Ξ | Ξ | greek capital letter xi | |
Ο | Ο | greek capital letter omicron | |
Π | Π | greek capital letter pi | |
Ρ | Ρ | greek capital letter rho | |
Σ | Σ | greek capital letter sigma | |
Τ | Τ | greek capital letter tau | |
Υ | Υ | greek capital letter upsilon | |
Φ | Φ | greek capital letter phi | |
Χ | Χ | greek capital letter chi | |
Ψ | Ψ | greek capital letter psi | |
Ω | Ω | greek capital letter omega | |
α | α | greek small letter alpha | |
β | β | greek small letter beta | |
γ | γ | greek small letter gamma | |
δ | δ | greek small letter delta | |
ε | ε | greek small letter epsilon | |
ζ | ζ | greek small letter zeta | |
η | η | greek small letter eta | |
θ | θ | greek small letter theta | |
ι | ι | greek small letter iota | |
κ | κ | greek small letter kappa | |
λ | λ | greek small letter lambda | |
μ | μ | greek small letter mu | |
ν | ν | greek small letter nu | |
ξ | ξ | greek small letter xi | |
ο | ο | greek small letter omicron | |
π | π | greek small letter pi | |
ρ | ρ | greek small letter rho | |
ς | ς | greek small letter final sigma | |
σ | σ | greek small letter sigma | |
τ | τ | greek small letter tau | |
υ | υ | greek small letter upsilon | |
φ | φ | greek small letter phi | |
χ | χ | greek small letter chi | |
ψ | ψ | greek small letter psi | |
ω | ω | greek small letter omega | |
ϑ | ϑ | greek small letter theta symbol | |
ϒ | ϒ | greek upsilon with hook symbol | |
ϖ | ϖ | greek pi symbol |
General Punctuation
Widely Supported |
Entity Encoding |
Looks Like |
Explanation of Symbol |
• | • | bullet, black small circle | |
… | … | horizontal ellipsis, three dot leader | |
′ | ′ | prime, minutes, feet | |
″ | ″ | double prime, seconds, inches | |
‾ | ‾ | overline, spacing overscore | |
⁄ | ⁄ | fraction slash |
Letterlike Symbols
Widely Supported |
Entity Encoding |
Looks Like |
Explanation of Symbol |
℘ | ℘ | script capital P, Weierstrass p | |
ℑ | ℑ | blackletter capital I, imaginary part | |
ℜ | ℜ | blackletter capital R, real part symbol | |
™ | ™ | trade mark sign | |
ℵ | ℵ | alef symbol, first transfinite cardinal |
Arrows
Widely Supported |
Entity Encoding |
Looks Like |
Explanation of Symbol |
← | ← | leftwards arrow | |
↑ | ↑ | upwards arrow | |
→ | → | rightwards arrow | |
↓ | ↓ | downwards arrow | |
↔ | ↔ | left right arrow | |
↵ | ↵ | downwards arrow with corner leftwards (carriage return) | |
⇐ | ⇐ | leftwards double arrow | |
⇑ | ⇑ | upwards double arrow | |
⇒ | ⇒ | rightwards double arrow | |
⇓ | ⇓ | downwards double arrow | |
⇔ | ⇔ | left right double arrow |
Mathematical Operators
Widely Supported |
Entity Encoding |
Looks Like |
Explanation of Symbol |
∀ | ∀ | for all | |
∂ | ∂ | partial differential | |
∃ | ∃ | there exists | |
∅ | ∅ | empty set, null set, diameter | |
∇ | ∇ | nabla, backward difference | |
∈ | ∈ | element of | |
∉ | ∉ | not an element of | |
∋ | ∋ | contains as member | |
∏ | ∏ | n-ary product, product sign | |
∑ | ∑ | n-ary sumation | |
− | − | minus sign | |
∗ | ∗ | asterisk operator | |
√ | √ | square root, radical sign | |
∝ | ∝ | proportional to | |
∞ | ∞ | infinity | |
∠ | ∠ | angle | |
∧ | ∧ | logical and, wedge | |
∨ | ∨ | logical or, vee | |
∩ | ∩ | intersection, cap | |
∪ | ∪ | union, cup | |
∫ | ∫ | integral | |
∴ | ∴ | therefore | |
∼ | ∼ | tilde operator, varies with, similar to | |
≅ | ≅ | approximately equal to | |
≈ | ≈ | almost equal to, asymptotic to | |
≠ | ≠ | not equal to | |
≡ | ≡ | identical to | |
≤ | ≤ | less-than or equal to | |
≥ | ≥ | greater-than or equal to | |
⊂ | ⊂ | subset of | |
⊃ | ⊃ | superset of | |
⊄ | ⊄ | not a subset of | |
⊆ | ⊆ | subset of or equal to | |
⊇ | ⊇ | superset of or equal to | |
⊕ | ⊕ | circled plus, direct sum | |
⊗ | ⊗ | circled times, vector product | |
⊥ | ⊥ | up tack, orthogonal to, perpendicular | |
⋅ | ⋅ | dot operator |
Miscellaneous Technical
Widely Supported |
Entity Encoding |
Looks Like |
Explanation of Symbol |
⌈ | ⌈ | left ceiling, apl upstile | |
⌉ | ⌉ | right ceiling | |
⌊ | ⌊ | left floor, apl downstile | |
⌋ | ⌋ | right floor | |
⟨ | 〈 | left-pointing angle bracket, bra | |
⟩ | 〉 | right-pointing angle bracket, ket |
Geometric Shapes
Widely Supported |
Entity Encoding |
Looks Like |
Explanation of Symbol |
◊ | ◊ | lozenge |
Miscellaneous Symbols
Widely Supported |
Entity Encoding |
Looks Like |
Explanation of Symbol |
♠ | ♠ | black spade suit | |
♣ | ♣ | black club suit, shamrock | |
♥ | ♥ | black heart suit, valentine | |
♦ | ♦ | black diamond suit |
Latin Extended-A
Widely Supported |
Entity Encoding |
Looks Like |
Explanation of Symbol |
Œ | Œ | latin capital ligature oe | |
œ | œ | latin small ligature oe | |
Š | Š | latin capital letter s with caron | |
š | š | latin small letter s with caron | |
Ÿ | Ÿ | latin capital letter y with diaeresis |
Spacing Modifier Letters
Widely Supported |
Entity Encoding |
Looks Like |
Explanation of Symbol |
ˆ | ˆ | modifier letter circumflex accent | |
˜ | ˜ | small tilde |
General Punctuation
Widely Supported |
Entity Encoding |
Looks Like |
Explanation of Symbol |
  | en space | ||
  | em space | ||
  | thin space | ||
‌ | | zero width non-joiner | |
‍ | | zero width joiner | |
‎ | | left-to-right mark | |
‏ | | right-to-left mark | |
– | – | en dash | |
— | — | em dash | |
‘ | ‘ | left single quotation mark | |
’ | ’ | right single quotation mark | |
‚ | ‚ | single low-9 quotation mark | |
“ | “ | left double quotation mark | |
” | ” | right double quotation mark | |
„ | „ | double low-9 quotation mark | |
† | † | dagger | |
‡ | ‡ | double dagger | |
‰ | ‰ | per mille sign |