entities/readme.md

Encode & decode XML and HTML entities with ease & speed

# entities [![NPM version](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/entities.svg)](https://npmjs.org/package/entities) [![Downloads](https://img.shields.io/npm/dm/entities.svg)](https://npmjs.org/package/entities) [![Node.js CI](https://github.com/fb55/entities/actions/workflows/nodejs-test.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/fb55/entities/actions/workflows/nodejs-test.yml)

Encode & decode HTML & XML entities with ease & speed.

## Features

- 😇 Tried and true: `entities` is used by many popular libraries; eg.
  [`htmlparser2`](https://github.com/fb55/htmlparser2), the official
  [AWS SDK](https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-js-v3) and
  [`commonmark`](https://github.com/commonmark/commonmark.js) use it to process
  HTML entities.
- ⚡️ Fast: `entities` is the fastest library for decoding HTML entities (as of
  September 2025); see [performance](#performance).
- 🎛 Configurable: Get an output tailored for your needs. You are fine with
  UTF8? That'll save you some bytes. Prefer to only have ASCII characters? We
  can do that as well!

## How to…

### …install `entities`

    npm install entities

### …use `entities`

```javascript
const entities = require("entities");

// Encoding
entities.escapeUTF8("& ü"); // "& ü"
entities.encodeXML("& ü"); // "& ü"
entities.encodeHTML("& ü"); // "& ü"

// Decoding
entities.decodeXML("asdf & ÿ ü '"); // "asdf & ÿ ü '"
entities.decodeHTML("asdf & ÿ ü '"); // "asdf & ÿ ü '"
```

## Performance

Benchmarked in September 2025 with Node v24.6.0 on Apple M2 using `tinybench`.
Higher ops/s is better; `avg (μs)` is the mean time per operation.
See `scripts/benchmark.ts` to reproduce.

### Decoding

| Library        | Version | ops/s     | avg (μs) | ±%   | slower |
| -------------- | ------- | --------- | -------- | ---- | ------ |
| entities       | 7.0.0   | 5,838,416 | 175.57   | 0.06 | —      |
| html-entities  | 2.6.0   | 2,919,637 | 347.77   | 0.33 | 50.0%  |
| he             | 1.2.0   | 2,318,438 | 446.48   | 0.70 | 60.3%  |
| parse-entities | 4.0.2   |   852,855 | 1,199.51 | 0.36 | 85.4%  |

### Encoding

| Library        | Version | ops/s     | avg (μs) | ±%   | slower |
| -------------- | ------- | --------- | -------- | ---- | ------ |
| entities       | 7.0.0   | 2,770,115 | 368.09   | 0.11 | —      |
| html-entities  | 2.6.0   | 1,491,963 | 679.96   | 0.58 | 46.2%  |
| he             | 1.2.0   |   481,278 | 2,118.25 | 0.61 | 82.6%  |

### Escaping

| Library        | Version | ops/s     | avg (μs) | ±%   | slower |
| -------------- | ------- | --------- | -------- | ---- | ------ |
| entities       | 7.0.0   | 4,616,468 | 223.84   | 0.17 | —      |
| he             | 1.2.0   | 3,659,301 | 280.76   | 0.58 | 20.7%  |
| html-entities  | 2.6.0   | 3,555,301 | 296.63   | 0.84 | 23.0%  |

Note: Micro-benchmarks may vary across machines and Node versions.

---

## FAQ

> What methods should I actually use to encode my documents?

If your target supports UTF-8, the `escapeUTF8` method is going to be your best
choice. Otherwise, use either `encodeHTML` or `encodeXML` based on whether
you're dealing with an HTML or an XML document.

You can have a look at the options for the `encode` and `decode` methods to see
everything you can configure.

> When should I use strict decoding?

When strict decoding, entities not terminated with a semicolon will be ignored.
This is helpful for decoding entities in legacy environments.

> Why should I use `entities` instead of alternative modules?

As of September 2025, `entities` is faster than other modules. Still, this is
not a differentiated space and other modules can catch up.

**More importantly**, you might already have `entities` in your dependency graph
(as a dependency of eg. `cheerio`, or `htmlparser2`), and including it directly
might not even increase your bundle size. The same is true for other entity
libraries, so have a look through your `node_modules` directory!

> Does `entities` support tree shaking?

Yes! `entities` ships as both a CommonJS and a ES module. Note that for best
results, you should not use the `encode` and `decode` functions, as they wrap
around a number of other functions, all of which will remain in the bundle.
Instead, use the functions that you need directly.

---

## Acknowledgements

This library wouldn't be possible without the work of these individuals. Thanks
to

- [@mathiasbynens](https://github.com/mathiasbynens) for his explanations about
  character encodings, and his library `he`, which was one of the inspirations
  for `entities`
- [@inikulin](https://github.com/inikulin) for his work on optimized tries for
  decoding HTML entities for the `parse5` project
- [@mdevils](https://github.com/mdevils) for taking on the challenge of
  producing a quick entity library with his `html-entities` library. `entities`
  would be quite a bit slower if there wasn't any competition. Right now
  `entities` is on top, but we'll see how long that lasts!

---

License: BSD-2-Clause

## Security contact information

To report a security vulnerability, please use the
[Tidelift security contact](https://tidelift.com/security). Tidelift will
coordinate the fix and disclosure.

## `entities` for enterprise

Available as part of the Tidelift Subscription

The maintainers of `entities` and thousands of other packages are working with
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dependencies you use to build your applications. Save time, reduce risk, and
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[Learn more.](https://tidelift.com/subscription/pkg/npm-entities?utm_source=npm-entities&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=enterprise&utm_term=repo)