Don't decode HTML entities when setting value of </a></h1> </div> <div class="grid fw-wrap pb8 mb16 bb bc-black-075"> <div class="grid--cell ws-nowrap mr16 mb8" title="2016-01-12 19:07:53Z"> <span class="fc-light mr2">Asked</span> <time itemprop="dateCreated" datetime="2016-04-20T10:56:05.933" class="fromnow">Apr 20 '16 at 10:56</time> </div> <div class="grid--cell ws-nowrap mr16 mb8"> <span class="fc-light mr2">Active</span> <time class="fromnow" title="2016-04-20T11:19:48.627" datetime="2016-04-20T11:19:48.627">Apr 20 '16 at 11:19</a> </div> <div class="grid--cell ws-nowrap mb8" title="Viewed 986 times"> <span class="fc-light mr2">Viewed</span> 986 times </div> </div> <div id="mainbar" role="main" aria-label="questions and answers"> <div id="question" class="question" data-questionid="36741633" data-ownerid="1744123" data-score="3"> <div class="post-layout"> <div class="votecell post-layout--left"> <div class="js-voting-container grid jc-center fd-column ai-stretch gs4 fc-black-200" data-post-id="36741633"> <button class="js-vote-up-btn grid--cell s-btn s-btnunset c-pointer"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="m0 svg-icon iconArrowUpLg" width="36" height="36" viewBox="0 0 36 36"><path d="M2 26h32L18 10 2 26z"></path></svg></button> <div class="js-vote-count grid--cell fc-black-500 fs-title grid fd-column ai-center" itemprop="upvoteCount" data-value="3">3</div> <button class="js-bookmark-btn s-btn s-btnunset c-pointer py4"> <svg aria-hidden="true" class="svg-icon iconBookmark" width="18" height="18" viewBox="0 0 18 18"><path d="M6 1a2 2 0 00-2 2v14l5-4 5 4V3a2 2 0 00-2-2H6zm3.9 3.83h2.9l-2.35 1.7.9 2.77L9 7.59l-2.35 1.7.9-2.76-2.35-1.7h2.9L9 2.06l.9 2.77z"></path></svg> <div class="js-bookmark-count mt4" data-value=""></div> </button> </div> </div> <div class="postcell post-layout--right"> <div class="s-prose js-post-body" itemprop="text"><p>I have a script that writes a string to <code><textarea></code>. The string may contain HTML entities (like <code>&</code>). When the string is written to the <code><textarea></code>, the HTML entities are decoded.</p> <pre><code>var str = 'foo & bar'; form.text.value = str; </code></pre> <p>What happens:</p> <p><code>Textarea: foo & bar</code></p> <p>What I want:</p> <p><code>Textarea: foo & bar</code></p> <p>How can I accomplish this?</p> <p><strong>Edit</strong> How can I accomplish this <em>in javascript</em>, not PHP?</p></div> <div class="mt24 mb12"> <div class="post-taglist grid gs4 gsy fd-column"> <div class="grid ps-relative"> <a href="../../questions/tagged/javascript" class="post-tag js-gps-track" title="show questions tagged 'javascript'" rel="tag">javascript</a> <a href="../../questions/tagged/html" class="post-tag js-gps-track" title="show questions tagged 'html'" rel="tag">html</a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="mb0"> <div class="mt16 grid gs8 gsy fw-wrap jc-end ai-start pt4 mb16"> <div class="grid--cell mr16 fl1 w96"></div> <div class="post-signature grid--cell"> <div class="user-info "> <div class="user-action-time">edited <span title="2016-04-20T11:04:54.467" class="relativetime">Apr 20 '16 at 11:04</span></div> <div class="user-gravatar32"></div> <div class="user-details" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"> <span class="d-none" itemprop="name">JB0x2D1</span> <div class="-flair"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-signature owner grid--cell"> <div class="s-user-card s-user-card"> <time class="s-user-card--time" datetime="asked Apr 20 '16 at 10:56">asked Apr 20 '16 at 10:56</time> <a href="../../users/1744123/jb0x2d1" class="s-avatar s-avatar32 s-user-card--avatar"> <img class="s-avatar--image" src="../../users/profiles/1744123.webp" data-jdenticon-width="32" data-jdenticon-height="32" data-jdenticon-value="JB0x2D1" /> </a> <div class="s-user-card--info"> <a href="../../users/1744123/jb0x2d1" class="s-user-card--link">JB0x2D1</a> <ul class="s-user-card--awards"> <li class="s-user-card--rep" title="reputation score">838</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-blingsilver" title="8 silver badges">8</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-bling__bronze" title="20 bronze badges">20</li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-layout--right js-post-comments-component"> <div id="comments-36741633" class="comments js-comments-container bt bc-black-075 mt12 " data-post-id="36741633" data-min-length="15"> <ul class="comments-list js-comments-list" data-remaining-comments-count="0" data-canpost="false" data-cansee="true" data-comments-unavailable="false" data-addlink-disabled="true"> <li id="comment-61065328" class="comment js-comment " data-comment-id="61065328" data-comment-owner-id="973552" data-comment-score="1"> <div class="js-comment-actions comment-actions"> <div class="comment-score js-comment-edit-hide"> <span title="number of 'useful comment' votes received" class="warm">1</span> </div> </div> <div class="comment-text js-comment-text-and-form"> <a name="comment61065328_36741633"></a> <div class="comment-body js-comment-edit-hide"> <span class="comment-copy">Read the answer on the link with 24 up ticks - it's nothing to do with php but more the way a browser renders textarea content</span> – <a href="../../users/973552/studiotime" title="22,603 reputation" class="comment-user ">StudioTime</a> <span class="comment-date" dir="ltr"><a class="comment-link" href="../../questions/36741633/don-t-decode-html-entities-when-setting-value-of-textarea#comment61065328_36741633"><span title="2016-04-20T11:07:12.307 License: CC BY-SA 3.0" class="relativetime-clean">Apr 20 '16 at 11:07</span></a></span> </div> </div> </li> <li id="comment-61065458" class="comment js-comment " data-comment-id="61065458" data-comment-owner-id="1134649" data-comment-score="0"> <div class="js-comment-actions comment-actions"> <div class="comment-score js-comment-edit-hide"> </div> </div> <div class="comment-text js-comment-text-and-form"> <a name="comment61065458_36741633"></a> <div class="comment-body js-comment-edit-hide"> <span class="comment-copy">I'm not sure I understand what you are doing there, since writing tags like that into textarea should work as you want (https://jsfiddle.net/41wp4jvs/). are you sure form.text is a textarea?</span> – <a href="../../users/1134649/ronen-ness" title="9,923 reputation" class="comment-user ">Ronen Ness</a> <span class="comment-date" dir="ltr"><a class="comment-link" href="../../questions/36741633/don-t-decode-html-entities-when-setting-value-of-textarea#comment61065458_36741633"><span title="2016-04-20T11:10:56.867 License: CC BY-SA 3.0" class="relativetime-clean">Apr 20 '16 at 11:10</span></a></span> </div> </div> </li> <li id="comment-61065946" class="comment js-comment " data-comment-id="61065946" data-comment-owner-id="1744123" data-comment-score="0"> <div class="js-comment-actions comment-actions"> <div class="comment-score js-comment-edit-hide"> </div> </div> <div class="comment-text js-comment-text-and-form"> <a name="comment61065946_36741633"></a> <div class="comment-body js-comment-edit-hide"> <span class="comment-copy">@Ness for whatever reason, it doesn't in my browser. Although your fiddle displays correctly...</span> – <a href="../../users/1744123/jb0x2d1" title="838 reputation" class="comment-user owner">JB0x2D1</a> <span class="comment-date" dir="ltr"><a class="comment-link" href="../../questions/36741633/don-t-decode-html-entities-when-setting-value-of-textarea#comment61065946_36741633"><span title="2016-04-20T11:22:51.270 License: CC BY-SA 3.0" class="relativetime-clean">Apr 20 '16 at 11:22</span></a></span> </div> </div> </li> <li id="comment-61066390" class="comment js-comment " data-comment-id="61066390" data-comment-owner-id="1134649" data-comment-score="0"> <div class="js-comment-actions comment-actions"> <div class="comment-score js-comment-edit-hide"> </div> </div> <div class="comment-text js-comment-text-and-form"> <a name="comment61066390_36741633"></a> <div class="comment-body js-comment-edit-hide"> <span class="comment-copy">@JB0x2D1 strange. but I really don't think the solution you posted below is any good. it won't catch all cases (there might be other characters that you will miss) and in some browsers it might be seeing double. maybe before you do it try to access the textarea the same way I did in the jsfiddle, eg via id. see if it works for you.</span> – <a href="../../users/1134649/ronen-ness" title="9,923 reputation" class="comment-user ">Ronen Ness</a> <span class="comment-date" dir="ltr"><a class="comment-link" href="../../questions/36741633/don-t-decode-html-entities-when-setting-value-of-textarea#comment61066390_36741633"><span title="2016-04-20T11:33:40.523 License: CC BY-SA 3.0" class="relativetime-clean">Apr 20 '16 at 11:33</span></a></span> </div> </div> </li> <li id="comment-61066589" class="comment js-comment " data-comment-id="61066589" data-comment-owner-id="1744123" data-comment-score="0"> <div class="js-comment-actions comment-actions"> <div class="comment-score js-comment-edit-hide"> </div> </div> <div class="comment-text js-comment-text-and-form"> <a name="comment61066589_36741633"></a> <div class="comment-body js-comment-edit-hide"> <span class="comment-copy">Maybe, but I'm loading the page on my machine locally so I'm not worried about how other browsers might treat it. Maybe somebody will come along and figure out what browsers behave this way and hash it out into if firefox then x; if chrome then y; if internet explorer then z. I'm using the latest version of Chromium on Ubuntu 15.10.</span> – <a href="../../users/1744123/jb0x2d1" title="838 reputation" class="comment-user owner">JB0x2D1</a> <span class="comment-date" dir="ltr"><a class="comment-link" href="../../questions/36741633/don-t-decode-html-entities-when-setting-value-of-textarea#comment61066589_36741633"><span title="2016-04-20T11:38:34.363 License: CC BY-SA 3.0" class="relativetime-clean">Apr 20 '16 at 11:38</span></a></span> </div> </div> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div id="answers"> <a name="tab-top"></a> <div id="answers-header"> <div class="answers-subheader grid ai-center mb8"> <div class="grid--cell fl1"> <h2 class="mb0" data-answercount="9">1 Answers<span style="display:none;" itemprop="answerCount">1</span></h2> </div> </div> </div> <a name="36742203"></a> <div id="answer-36742203" class="answer " data-answerid="36742203" data-ownerid="1744123" data-score="0" itemprop="suggestedAnswer" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/Answer"> <div class="post-layout"> <div class="votecell post-layout--left"> <div class="js-voting-container grid jc-center fd-column ai-stretch gs4 fc-black-200" data-post-id="36742203"> <button class="js-vote-up-btn grid--cell s-btn s-btnunset c-pointer"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="m0 svg-icon iconArrowUpLg" width="36" height="36" viewBox="0 0 36 36"><path d="M2 26h32L18 10 2 26z"></path></svg></button> <div class="js-vote-count grid--cell fc-black-500 fs-title grid fd-column ai-center" itemprop="upvoteCount" data-value="0">0</div> </div> </div> <div class="postcell post-layout--right"> <div class="s-prose js-post-body" itemprop="text"><pre><code>var str = 'foo & bar'; str = str.replace('&', '&');//now str == 'foo &amp; bar' form.text.value = str; </code></pre></div> <div class="mb0"> <div class="mt16 grid gs8 gsy fw-wrap jc-end ai-start pt4 mb16"> <div class="grid--cell mr16 fl1 w96"></div> <div class="post-signature owner grid--cell"> <div class="s-user-card s-user-card"> <time class="s-user-card--time" datetime="answered Apr 20 '16 at 11:19">answered Apr 20 '16 at 11:19</time> <a href="../../users/1744123/jb0x2d1" class="s-avatar s-avatar32 s-user-card--avatar"> <img class="s-avatar--image" src="../../users/profiles/1744123.webp" data-jdenticon-width="32" data-jdenticon-height="32" data-jdenticon-value="JB0x2D1" /> </a> <div class="s-user-card--info"> <a href="../../users/1744123/jb0x2d1" class="s-user-card--link">JB0x2D1</a> <ul class="s-user-card--awards"> <li class="s-user-card--rep" title="reputation score">838</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-blingsilver" title="8 silver badges">8</li> <li class="s-award-bling s-award-blingbronze" title="20 bronze badges">20</li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-layout--right js-post-comments-component"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <script src="../../static/js/stack-icons.js"></script> <script src="../../static/js/fromnow.js"></script> </body> </html>