escaping the greater than and less than symbols in javascript

Question

The code I have currently produces a html page with with "ac" on it, what I want is to have literally what the value of the string is (I would type it out here but I'm having the same problem). In words, what I want is "a" then the less than symbol then "b" then the greater than symbol then "c".

Thanks

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<p id="output"></p>

<script>

document.getElementById("output").innerHTML = "a<b>c"

</script>

</body>
</html>

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 18 '17 at 23:47

5

Set it as text instead of as html

document.getElementById("output").textContent = "a<b>c"

<p id="output"></p>

Or convert to html entities

 var str = "a<b>c".replace('<','&lt;').replace('>','&gt;')
 document.getElementById("output").innerHTML = str;

<div id="output"></div>

answered Nov 18 '17 at 23:47

charlietfl

169,044
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`.replace('','>')` will only replace the first occurences of each tag. Need to use RegEx instead (see @Mamum's answer below). – Lionel Jan 04 '19 at 10:24
use replaceAll to replace all instances of occurence. – SimpleGuy May 10 '21 at 13:25

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 18 '17 at 23:55

3

Try the following way:

document.getElementById("output").innerHTML = "a<b>c".replace(/</g, '&lt;').replace(/>/g, '&gt;')

<div id="output"</div>

answered Nov 18 '17 at 23:55

Mamun

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escaping the greater than and less than symbols in javascript

2 Answers2