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Less-Than Sign HTML entity <
< is the HTML entity for Less-Than Sign < (U+003C). Copy the decimal < and hex < codes plus CSS, JavaScript, Python and URL escapes.
- Entity
<- Also written
<- Legacy form
<(no semicolon)- Code point
- U+003C
- Unicode name
- LESS-THAN SIGN
- Block
- Basic Latin
- Category
- Math symbol (Sm)
- Since
- Unicode 1.1
- Defined in
- HTML 4.01 and HTML5, and predefined in XML
Codes to copy
| HTML named | <Works in HTML; in XML only & < > " ' are predefined. | |
|---|---|---|
| HTML decimal | <Works in HTML and XML. | |
| HTML hex | <Works in HTML and XML. | |
| CSS | content: "\3C";In a stylesheet, for ::before and ::after. | |
| JavaScript | "\u003C"Also valid in JSON. | |
| Python | "\u003c"Python 3 string literal. | |
| Python by name | "\N{LESS-THAN SIGN}"Readable alternative using the Unicode name. | |
| URL | %3CPercent-encoded UTF-8 bytes, for a path or query value. | |
| UTF-8 bytes | 3C1 byte. | |
| UTF-16 | 003C1 code unit, which is what JavaScript length counts. |
When to use it
Write < whenever a less than sign appears in text or code samples: a raw < followed by a letter starts a tag, and the rest of the line disappears into it. Escaping < and & is the core of output encoding against HTML injection. Predefined in XML as well as HTML.
The name dates from HTML 4, so it works in every browser and in old email clients.
Browsers also accept the legacy form < without a semicolon, for compatibility with old pages; new HTML should always end the reference with a semicolon.
More html syntax and ascii punctuation
>Greater-Than Sign:Colon?Question Mark/Solidus (Slash)@At Sign.Full Stop[Left Square Bracket,Comma
All html syntax and ascii punctuation · Every HTML entity · Encode or decode text
Source: the WHATWG HTML Standard list of named character references and the Unicode Character Database (Unicode 18.0).