How To Stop Html Code

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As a web developer, you might come across situations where you need to stop HTML code from being executed or rendered on your web page. This can be useful in situations where you want to display code snippets or examples on your website without having them executed. In this blog post, we’ll go over different methods to stop HTML code from being executed and display it as plain text on your website.

Using HTML Entities

One of the easiest ways to display HTML code without executing is by using HTML entities. You can replace the < and > characters in your HTML code with their respective HTML entities, which are &lt; and &gt;. This will prevent browsers from interpreting the code as actual HTML elements.

For example, let’s say you want to display the following HTML code on your website:

    <p>Hello, World!</p>

You can replace the < and > characters with their HTML entities like this:

    &amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Hello, World!&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;

When you add this code to your website, it will display as plain text:

<p>Hello, World!</p>

Using the <pre> and <code> Elements

Another method to display HTML code as plain text is by using the <pre> and <code> elements. The <pre> element preserves the formatting and spacing of the text inside it, while the <code> element indicates that the text is a code snippet.

To use this method, you’ll still need to replace the < and > characters in your HTML code with their respective HTML entities. Then, wrap the code in <pre> and <code> elements like this:

    <pre><code>&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Hello, World!&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;</code></pre>

This will display the code as plain text with the original formatting and spacing:

<p>Hello, World!</p>

Using JavaScript

If you’re working with dynamic content, you can use JavaScript to replace the < and > characters in your HTML code with their respective HTML entities. This can be particularly useful when displaying user-generated content that might contain HTML code.

Here’s an example of how to use JavaScript to display an HTML code snippet as plain text:

    <script>
    const htmlCode = '<p>Hello, World!</p>';
    const escapedCode = htmlCode.replace(/</g, '&amp;lt;').replace(/>/g, '&amp;gt;');
    document.write(`<pre><code>${escapedCode}</code></pre>`);
    </script>

This script will replace the < and > characters in the htmlCode variable with their HTML entities, then use document.write() to display the escaped code as plain text inside <pre> and <code> elements.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we covered three methods to stop HTML code from being executed and display it as plain text on your website. By using HTML entities, the <pre> and <code> elements, or JavaScript, you can ensure that your code snippets and examples are displayed correctly without being executed by the browser. Choose the method that best suits your needs and enjoy sharing code with your audience!