Question

I am just trying to replace html brackets with their ascii equivalent. Particularly < for < and > for > for code inside a pre tag.

There must be a very simple script to do this but I can`t find it.

Something along the lines of the code below except something that works.

$('.code').each(function() {
var $this = $(this);
var t = $this.html();
$this.html(t.replace('/</g','&lt;').replace('/>/g','&gt;'));
});

Any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

You should do validation/replacing of < and > server-side using PHP etc. as people can easily disable JavaScript and evade validation that is client-side. Client-side validation is like saying for a stranger to look after your wallet. Sometimes the stranger will be a nice person and not open it. Sometimes they may be a thief.

Anyway, here is a PHP example:

<?php
$raw = $_POST['text'];
$encoded = htmlentities($raw);
// Use the below code if you are inserting the result into a database
$db_encoded = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $encoded);
?>