Character entity reference

A character entity is a code used to represent characters that doesn't belong to the document's character set. There are three way to write a character entity, and all of them start with an ampersand and end with a semicolon:

• Entity name: Its assigned name (e.g., á for á)
• Decimal: Its decimal code (e.g., &225; for á)
• Hexadecimal: Its hexadecimal code (e.g., á for á)

Many browsers don't provide support for all character entities and they usually render a white square instead. Other problem with browsers compatibility is that some of them lack in understanding one or more of the available ways to write a character entity (e.g., by it's hexadecimal code).

Below are three lists of character entity references written and rendered (by your browser) in the three ways: