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<title>Convert special HTML entities back to characters</title>
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<h1 class="refname">htmlspecialchars_decode</h1>
<p class="verinfo">(PHP 5 >= 5.1.0)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">htmlspecialchars_decode</span> — <span class="dc-title">
Convert special HTML entities back to characters
</span></p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-function.htmlspecialchars-decode-description">
<h3 class="title">Description</h3>
<div class="methodsynopsis dc-description">
<span class="type">string</span> <span class="methodname"><strong>htmlspecialchars_decode</strong></span>
( <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$string</code></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">int</span> <code class="parameter">$flags</code><span class="initializer"> = ENT_COMPAT | ENT_HTML401</span></span>
] )</div>
<p class="para rdfs-comment">
This function is the opposite of <span class="function"><a href="function.htmlspecialchars.html" class="function">htmlspecialchars()</a></span>. It
converts special HTML entities back to characters.
</p>
<p class="para">
The converted entities are: <em>&amp;</em>,
<em>&quot;</em> (when <strong><code>ENT_NOQUOTES</code></strong> is not set),
<em>&#039;</em> (when <strong><code>ENT_QUOTES</code></strong> is set),
<em>&lt;</em> and <em>&gt;</em>.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.htmlspecialchars-decode-parameters">
<h3 class="title">Parameters</h3>
<p class="para">
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">string</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
The string to decode.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">flags</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
A bitmask of one or more of the following flags, which specify how to handle quotes and
which document type to use. The default is <em>ENT_COMPAT | ENT_HTML401</em>.
<table class="doctable table">
<caption><strong>Available <em><code class="parameter">flags</code></em> constants</strong></caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Constant Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr>
<td><strong><code>ENT_COMPAT</code></strong></td>
<td>Will convert double-quotes and leave single-quotes alone.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong><code>ENT_QUOTES</code></strong></td>
<td>Will convert both double and single quotes.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong><code>ENT_NOQUOTES</code></strong></td>
<td>Will leave both double and single quotes unconverted.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong><code>ENT_HTML401</code></strong></td>
<td>
Handle code as HTML 4.01.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong><code>ENT_XML1</code></strong></td>
<td>
Handle code as XML 1.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong><code>ENT_XHTML</code></strong></td>
<td>
Handle code as XHTML.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong><code>ENT_HTML5</code></strong></td>
<td>
Handle code as HTML 5.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
</dl>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.htmlspecialchars-decode-returnvalues">
<h3 class="title">Return Values</h3>
<p class="para">
Returns the decoded string.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 changelog" id="refsect1-function.htmlspecialchars-decode-changelog">
<h3 class="title">Changelog</h3>
<p class="para">
<table class="doctable informaltable">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Version</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr>
<td>5.4.0</td>
<td>
The constants <strong><code>ENT_HTML401</code></strong>, <strong><code>ENT_XML1</code></strong>,
<strong><code>ENT_XHTML</code></strong> and <strong><code>ENT_HTML5</code></strong> were added.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.htmlspecialchars-decode-examples">
<h3 class="title">Examples</h3>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-4838">
<p><strong>Example #1 A <span class="function"><strong>htmlspecialchars_decode()</strong></span> example</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br />$str </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"<p>this -&gt; &quot;</p>\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /><br />echo </span><span style="color: #0000BB">htmlspecialchars_decode</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$str</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// note that here the quotes aren't converted<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">echo </span><span style="color: #0000BB">htmlspecialchars_decode</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$str</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">ENT_NOQUOTES</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
<div class="example-contents"><p>The above example will output:</p></div>
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
<p>this -> "</p>
<p>this -> &quot;</p>
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 seealso" id="refsect1-function.htmlspecialchars-decode-seealso">
<h3 class="title">See Also</h3>
<p class="para">
<ul class="simplelist">
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.htmlspecialchars.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">htmlspecialchars()</a> - Convert special characters to HTML entities</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.html-entity-decode.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">html_entity_decode()</a> - Convert all HTML entities to their applicable characters</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.get-html-translation-table.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">get_html_translation_table()</a> - Returns the translation table used by htmlspecialchars and htmlentities</span></li>
</ul>
</p>
</div>
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