HTML entities

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created 2005 · complexity basic · author Jos van den Oever · version 6.0

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There are several ways to deal with HTML entities so that text can be edited, for example, while it contains a simple ampersand (&) rather than its HTML entity (&).

Simple search and replace

This code allows you to escape your HTML entities with one shortcut key: Change (<, >, &) to (<, >, &), or the reverse.

This does not escape all characters that should be escaped—just the most common.

function HtmlEscape()
  silent s/&/\&/eg
  silent s/</\&lt;/eg
  silent s/>/\&gt;/eg
endfunction

function HtmlUnEscape()
  silent s/&lt;/</eg
  silent s/&gt;/>/eg
  silent s/&amp;/\&/eg
endfunction

nnoremap <Leader>h :call HtmlEscape()<CR>
nnoremap <Leader>H :call HtmlUnEscape()<CR>

If you add this code to your vimrc, you can escape visually-selected HTML by typing \h, and unescape by typing \H (assuming the default backslash leader key).

Automagic escaping

A script is available (unicodeswitch) that automagically converts entities when files are read and written, so you can view the characters, and write the codes, or vice versa. It was originally written for Java unicodes, but there is also a setting for HTML codes.

The script is for &nnn style encoding, not the HTML entities.

Perl HTML::Entities

Note: Vim needs to compiled with the "perl" feature enabled for this to work.

A slightly more complex solution that escapes all characters uses Perl. You need Perl and HTML-Parser.

function! HTMLEncode()
perl << EOF
 use HTML::Entities;
 @pos = $curwin->Cursor();
 $line = $curbuf->Get($pos[0]);
 $encvalue = encode_entities($line);
 $curbuf->Set($pos[0],$encvalue)
EOF
endfunction

function! HTMLDecode()
perl << EOF
 use HTML::Entities;
 @pos = $curwin->Cursor();
 $line = $curbuf->Get($pos[0]);
 $encvalue = decode_entities($line);
 $curbuf->Set($pos[0],$encvalue)
EOF
endfunction

nnoremap <Leader>h :call HTMLEncode()<CR>
nnoremap <Leader>H :call HTMLDecode()<CR>

To convert a line, put the cursor in the line and type \h or \H.

Ruby HTMLEncode

Note: Vim needs to be compiled with the "ruby" feature enabled for this to work.

The following is a simpler alternative using Ruby.

function! HTMLEncode()
ruby << EOF
  @str=VIM::Buffer.current.line
  VIM::Buffer.current.line=@str.unpack("U*").collect {|s| (s > 127 ? "&##{s};" : s.chr) }.join("")
EOF
endfunction

nnoremap <Leader>h :call HTMLEncode()<CR>

Comments

Can check it with:

.! php -r "echo htmlentities('<cword>');"

---

command Entities :call Entities()
function Entities()
  silent s/À/\À/eg
  silent s/Á/\Á/eg
  silent s/Â/\Â/eg
  silent s/Ã/\Ã/eg
  silent s/Ä/\Ä/eg
  silent s/Å/\Å/eg
  silent s/Æ/\Æ/eg
  silent s/Ç/\Ç/eg
  silent s/È/\È/eg
  silent s/É/\É/eg
  silent s/Ê/\Ê/eg
  silent s/Ë/\Ë/eg
  silent s/Ì/\Ì/eg
  silent s/Í/\Í/eg
  silent s/Î/\Î/eg
  silent s/Ï/\Ï/eg
  silent s/Ð/\Ð/eg
  silent s/Ñ/\Ñ/eg
  silent s/Ò/\Ò/eg
  silent s/Ó/\Ó/eg
  silent s/Ô/\Ô/eg
  silent s/Õ/\Õ/eg
  silent s/Ö/\Ö/eg
  silent s/Ø/\Ø/eg
  silent s/Ù/\Ù/eg
  silent s/Ú/\Ú/eg
  silent s/Û/\Û/eg
  silent s/Ü/\Ü/eg
  silent s/Ý/\Ý/eg
  silent s/Þ/\Þ/eg
  silent s/ß/\ß/eg
  silent s/à/\à/eg
  silent s/á/\á/eg
  silent s/â/\â/eg
  silent s/ã/\ã/eg
  silent s/ä/\ä/eg
  silent s/å/\å/eg
  silent s/æ/\æ/eg
  silent s/ç/\ç/eg
  silent s/è/\è/eg
  silent s/é/\é/eg
  silent s/ê/\ê/eg
  silent s/ë/\ë/eg
  silent s/ì/\ì/eg
  silent s/í/\í/eg
  silent s/î/\î/eg
  silent s/ï/\ï/eg
  silent s/ð/\ð/eg
  silent s/ñ/\ñ/eg
  silent s/ò/\ò/eg
  silent s/ó/\ó/eg
  silent s/ô/\ô/eg
  silent s/õ/\õ/eg
  silent s/ö/\ö/eg
  silent s/ø/\ø/eg
  silent s/ù/\ù/eg
  silent s/ú/\ú/eg
  silent s/û/\û/eg
  silent s/ü/\ü/eg
  silent s/ý/\ý/eg
  silent s/þ/\þ/eg
  silent s/ÿ/\ÿ/eg
endfunction