£ or &pound?

**abanana** · Dec 5, 2006 18:23

hi all,

which one should i use on my page?
in the header i got:

HTML Code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />

im using "&pound" on all my pages. the symbol looks fine in IE, but in Netscape(8.1) it will display both: "&pound" on normal pages, which is not the result i want, and displays "£" inside tables.

so im confused, what shall i use? how to gurantee it always displays "£"?

thanks

**JonSiddle** · Dec 5, 2006 18:50

Code:

&pound;

You sure you aren't missing the semicolon?

**abanana** · Dec 5, 2006 18:56

thx JonSiddle,

you're right! i missed some of the semicolon.

it works now in Netscape after i added these semicolons.

anyway, is it more safe to use "£" than just the symbol "£"?

thanks again!

**brandaggio** · Dec 5, 2006 19:07

You can also use an ampersand then pound sign then the number 163 then a semi-colon.

If the character you require is not a part of your charset you should use an entity.

**JonSiddle** · Dec 5, 2006 19:18

anyway, is it more safe to use "£" than just the symbol "£"?

Yes, since it works regardless of what default charset/conversions the browser supports. It's defined by the standards rather than just happening to work due to the charset.

**AutisticCuckoo** · Dec 6, 2006 00:44

You should never use named character entities with XHTML, other than the five predefined in XML.

XML parsers used in browsers aren't validating parsers and do not read the DTD (where entities are defined). Some browsers have the HTML entities hard-coded even for their XML parsers, but it's not something you can rely on.

Either use a numeric character reference (&#163;) or use a literal £ character. In the latter case, make sure that the encoding you declare matches the encoding you saved your markup file with. And remember that any encoding sent in the Content-Type HTTP header by your web server will override an XML declaration (or a pretend-XHTML <meta/> element).

**JonSiddle** · Dec 6, 2006 02:54

The way I read it, the entities are part of the XHTML1.0 spec:
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/dtds.htm...n-1_characters:

The XHTML entity sets are the same as for HTML 4, but have been modified to be valid XML 1.0 entity declarations. Note the entity for the Euro currency sign (€ or € or &#x20AC

is defined as part of the special characters.

Is there actually any browser which won't display £ correctly?

Whatever you do I'd never use a literal £

**AutisticCuckoo** · Dec 6, 2006 06:03

Originally Posted by JonSiddle

The way I read it, the entities are part of the XHTML1.0 spec:

Yes, they are. But those entities are defined in the XHTML DTDs, and non-validating XML parsers are not required to read the DTD. Browsers use non-validating XML parsers.

In other words, the HTML entities are valid to use in XHTML, but they can still fail in a browser or other user agent!

Originally Posted by JonSiddle

Is there actually any browser which won't display £ correctly?

IIRC, Opera 7/8 did not have a hard-coded list of entities in their XML parser.

Actually, it doesn't matter whether all existing browsers support character entities or not. Non-validating XML parsers do not have to read the DTD, ergo they are not guaranteed to understand any entities other than &lt;, &gt;, &amp;, &quot; and &apos;.

One of the main arguments from XHTML proponents is that XHTML can be used by other XML-aware user agents than web browsers. Surely there will be such user agents that will not have a hard-coded list of HTML entities? They may not even be aware that there is such a thing as HTML.

Originally Posted by JonSiddle

Whatever you do I'd never use a literal £

Why in the world not? As long as you declare the character encoding properly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using literal £ characters (or å, ö, ©, Chinese ideographs, etc.). That is why Unicode was invented.

On the other hand, XML parsers are only required to support UTF-8 and UTF-16. And UTF-16 support seems to be rather iffy. Thus, you should always use UTF-8 with X(HT)ML, and if you do, there are no problems whatsoever with using a literal £ character.

**JonSiddle** · Dec 6, 2006 06:24

Yes, they are. But those entities are defined in the XHTML DTDs, and non-validating XML parsers are not required to read the DTD. Browsers use non-validating XML parsers.

Ah, I see. Another braindead XMLism IMHO.

Thus, you should always use UTF-8 with X(HT)ML, and if you do, there are no problems whatsoever with using a literal £ character.

I'll take your word for that. I'd still use £ as it's more general.

**brandaggio** · Dec 6, 2006 09:40

The reason to use the numeric reference regardless is that if you are using "real" XML it will still be rendered, unlike the HTML entities. This was an issue I ran into awhile back.

If the user agent can't display your charset then you are going to have more than just the £ not showing so it to some extent is all or nothing - that is why if it is safe to use the charset you are using for your target audience and the character you want is a part of the available set, it too is safe to use.

You should reserve the use of entities for those rare occasions when a character you need is not in the charset you are using.

**AutisticCuckoo** · Dec 6, 2006 09:40

Originally Posted by JonSiddle

Ah, I see. Another braindead XMLism IMHO.

I'm prepared to agree with you. Entities are not very useful in XML, except in limited-scope applications.

Originally Posted by JonSiddle

I'll take your word for that. I'd still use £ as it's more general.

I assume something got lost in the vBulletin posting thing, or you're contradicting yourself.

A literal '£' character or a decimal NCR (&#163;) are the most reliable ways to insert a pound character. A hexadecimal NCR (&#xa3;) may fail in old browsers. Using &pound; is the least reliable way, especially for XHTML.

**JonSiddle** · Dec 6, 2006 10:02

lol, yeah - I typed '& #163;' but it decided to turn it into £

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