CreateTextNode And Entities

Modified with a newer version since it was first posted. Some comments may refer to older versions.

function entity(str, mode) {
str = (str) ? str : "";
mode = (mode) ? mode : "string";

var e = document.createElement("div");
e.innerHTML = str;

if (mode == "numeric") {
return "&#" + e.innerHTML.charCodeAt(0) + ";";
}
else if (mode == "utf16") {
var un = e.innerHTML.charCodeAt(0).toString(16);
while (un.length < 4) un = "0" + un;
return "u" + un;
}
else return e.innerHTML;
}

entity() has two parameters:

- entity: is a string which can be either a named entity (&raquo;), numeric entity (&#187;), UTF-16 value (u00bb), or even the character itself (»).

- mode: is an optional value that can be 'string', 'numeric', or 'utf16'. This tells the function what to return the value as. Defaults to 'string'.

You'd use it like this:

// String mode
var div = document.createElement('div');
var text = document.createTextNode('Parent '+entity('&raquo;')+' Child');
div.appendChild(text);

// Numeric mode
var description = "The entity for » is "+entity('»', 'numeric');

// UTF-16 mode
var description = "The UTF-16 value for » is "+entity('»', 'utf16');