HTML Guide for character reference

Character reference expands to a control character (U+0002).

Ensure you’re not using character references that expand to control characters, like , which are not permissible in HTML documents.

In HTML, a character reference allows you to use a specific ASCII or Unicode character in your document. Character references are written using the syntax &#code; where code is either the decimal or hexadecimal code point of the character. Control characters, like U+0002, are non-printable and are not allowed within HTML because they do not represent meaningful text content.

Character references should only be used for printable characters and standard entities. For example, common entities like & and < should be used for special characters like & and <.

Example of Incorrect Usage

The following example shows an HTML snippet where a control character is incorrectly referenced:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <title>Example Page</title>
</head>
<body>
  <p>Control character reference: &#2;</p>
</body>
</html>

Character reference was not terminated by a semicolon.