[php] How to display HTML tags as plain text

I have an input form on my website where HTML is allowed and I'm trying to add instructions about the use of HTML tags. I'd like the text to

<strong>Look just like this line - so then know how to type it</strong>

But so far all I get is:

Look just like this line - so then know how to type it

How can I show the tags so people know what to type?

Use htmlentities() to convert characters that would otherwise be displayed as HTML.

As many others have said, htmlentities() will do the trick... but it will look like shit.

Wrap it up with a <pre> tag and you'll preserve your indentation.

echo '<pre>';
echo htmlspecialchars($YOUR_HTML);
echo '</pre>';

To display HTML tags within a browser, surround the output with < xmp> and < / xmp> tags

The native JavaScript approach -

('<strong>Look just ...</strong>').replace(/</g, '&lt;').replace(/>/g, '&gt;');

Enjoy!

You should use htmlspecialchars. It replaces characters as below:

• & (ampersand) becomes &
• " (double quote) becomes " when ENT_NOQUOTES is not set.
• ' (single quote) becomes ' only when ENT_QUOTES is set.
• < (less than) becomes <
• > (greater than) becomes >

You just need to encode the <>s:

<strong>Look just like this line - so then know how to type it</strong>

you may use htmlspecialchars()

<?php
$new = htmlspecialchars("<a href='test'>Test</a>", ENT_QUOTES);
echo $new; // &lt;a href=&#039;test&#039;&gt;Test&lt;/a&gt;
?>

In PHP use the function htmlspecialchars() to escape < and >.

htmlspecialchars('<strong>something</strong>')

There is another way...

header('Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8');

This makes the whole page served as plain text... better is htmlspecialchars...

Hope this helps...

You can use htmlentities when echoing to the browser, this will show the tag rather than have html interpret it.

See here http://uk3.php.net/manual/en/function.htmlentities.php

Example:

 echo htmlentities("<strong>Look just like this line - so then know how to type it</strong>"); 

Output:

<strong>Look just like this line - so then know how to type it</strong>