I need to keep each character passed to .html() as is i.e. not encoded. For example, .html('>') to save the less-than character as >, not <. How would I do this? Ideally, the solution would apply to all "special" characters e.g. <, &, etc.
<h1 id="my-title"></h1>
// JavaScript / jQuery code.
$('#my-title').html('>');
...
...
// Somewhere else in the code, I need to retrieve the value back by calling
// var v = $('#my-title').html();
Use text() instead of html()
var v = $('#my-title').text();
Instead of .html() use .text() to save and retrieve the value.
$('#my-title').text('>');
var v = $('#my-title').text();
alert( v ); // alerts >
Note that you need to use .text() for saving the value as well. There's a reason why < and > become encoded...
html() function makes it encoded. try this: $('#my-title').text('>'); var v = $('#my-title').html();
$('#my-title').html('<test>'); var v = $('#my-title').text(); it shows nothing because it thinks <test> is a tag. jsfiddle.net/HtbG5/2text won't encode the value:
$('#my-title').html('>');
alert($('#my-title').text() + ' not encoded');
alert($('#my-title').html() + ' encoded');
>, but, as pointed out by @Juhana, it'd fail when the value is e.g. <test>. Thanks for jsFiddle, though (+1).