The Server.HTMLEncode Method

Introduction

The Server.HTMLEncode method can be used to encode a specified string. That means that the characters in the string are converted to their HTML-encoded equivalent. However what is the usage of that? Well let us say your string contains the complete <a> tag including the link, title etc. How would you display the complete tag (as a tag - not as a link) with Response.Write? You can’t do it, because it will convert the string into a tag and therefore it will only show the link and not the complete tag. For that problem you can use the HTMLEncode method.

Example

<%

            dim strLink

            strLink = "<a href='http://www.topxml.com' target='_blank'>TopXML</a>"

            Response.Write "Not HTMLEncoded string: " & strLink & "<br/><br/>"

            Response.WRite "HTMLEncoded string:" & Server.HTMLEncode(strLink)

%>

Output