gavinggordon/htmlentities

# HtmlEntities v4.1

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## Description

The ability to encode and decode a certain set of characters called 'Html Entities' has existed since PHP4. Amongst the vast number of functions built into PHP, there are 4 nearly identical functions that are used to encode and decode html entities; despite their similarities, however, 2 of them do provide additional capabilities not available to the others.


| Encoding Functions | Decoding Functions |
|--------------|--------------|
| htmlentities¹ | html_entity_decode¹ | 
| htmlspecialchars² | htmlspecialchars_decode² |


__¹__ *htmlentities and html_entity_decode can only encode and decode characters within PHP's HTML translations table.*

__²__ *htmlspecialchars and htmlspecialchars_decode can only encode and decode special characters³.*

__³__ *special characters are not interpreted as HTML tags and 8-bit characters are encoded as ASCII characters only.*

## What Sets This Apart
 
What sets this class apart from the rest is that this class, in addition to being able to encode and decode all of the same characters/entities that can be encoded and decoded by PHP's htmlentities() and html_entity_decode() functions, it can also encode and decode a very large number of characters/entities which PHP's built-in htmlentities encoding and decoding functions won't encode/decode, due to their lack of special meaning in HTML, like:

 - punctuation characters;
 - ASCII characters;
 - Greek characters;
 - Latin characters;
 - Russian characters;
 - Arithmetic characters;
 - and tons more...
 
## Usage

### Installation (via Composer)

```shellscript
    composer require gavinggordon/htmlentities
```

### Examples

#### Instantiation:

```php
    include_once( __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php' );

    $htmlentities = new \GGG\HtmlEntities();
```

#### Encoding:

```php
    $to_encode = 'Test-,;:';
    // Set a variable containing a string of the encoded characters you wish to be encoded;
    
    $encoded = $htmlentities->encode( $to_encode );
    // Get the encoded result by using the encode method on the returned instance of HtmlEntities;
    
    echo $encoded;
    // Display the encoded result, which is of type String;
    // Test‐,;:
```

#### Decoding:

 ```php
    $to_decode = 'Test˜*(#';
    // Set a variable containing a string of the encoded characters you wish to be decoded;
    
    $decoded = $htmlentities->decode( $to_decode );
    // Get the decoded result by using the decode method on the returned instance of HtmlEntities;
    
    echo $decoded;
    // Display the decoded result, which is of type String;
    // Test~*(#
 ```

--------------

#### More Information

##### CodeClimate

Check out our [CodeClimate](https://codeclimate.com) stats by [clicking here](https://codeclimate.com/github/gavinggordon/htmlentities).

##### PHP Innovation Award

This [class](http://www.phpclasses.org/package/9698.html) has been awarded a PHP Innovation Award, provided by [PHPClasses.org](http://www.phpclasses.org). My other PHP classes are accessible online via my [GitHub profile](https://github.com/gavinggordon) or [PHPClasses.org profile](http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/author/1348645.html).

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