Php - print html tags as text

Question

I need to print an HTML tag on screen as texts (and not in code).

I need the readers to literally read the tag.

What is the best practice to do so ?

print htmlspecialchars('<meta name="copyright" content="© Winston Smith, 1984">');

or

print htmlentities('<meta name="copyright" content="© Winston Smith, 1984">');

or none of the above.

Is there a better way?
What else should I consider ?
And last question - should I use print, echo or is there no difference ?

*EDIT I*

I already seen a problem with the character "©" with htmlentities(). This only confirms my doubts - which one is safe to use for all cases - and is there another way to print html tags as text ?

thanks for the input - the problem is not the copyright symbol per se. the problem is to print the tags as readable text on screen , and not in code. the sub-problem is to make it safe for all characters such as Ä Ü ü ß ° etc. etc . even if i do not know what they will be .. — Obmerk Kronen
– Obmerk Kronen, Commented Jun 8, 2012 at 0:39

Niet the Dark Absol · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-08 00:34:50Z

10

Basically all you really need to make HTML readable as text is:

$out = strtr($input,Array("<"=>"&lt;","&"=>"&amp;"));

htmlspecialchars is basically a subset of htmlentities. htmlentities encodes EVERYTHING that has an entity alternative, namely all the named entities and a handful of codes.

answered Jun 8, 2012 at 0:34

Niet the Dark Absol

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2 Comments

Obmerk Kronen Over a year ago

thanks! - that works for now ! but will that work on all content (I do not know which characters will be inside , I only know the tags need to be on screen and not in the code) . also, just because i want to understand more - if htmlspecialchars isa subset of htmlentities - why is htmlentities producing "Â©" and htmlspecialchars produces "©"

Scott Stevens Over a year ago

I think your issue has something to do with the encoding used on the characters. I had the same issue but I can't remember how or even if I fixed it.

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