In the markup languages SGML and HTML, a character entity reference is a reference to a particular kind of named entity that has been predefined or explicitly declared in a Document Type Definition (DTD). The "replacement text" of the entity consists of a single character from the Universal Character Set/Unicode.
The purpose of a character entity reference is to provide a way to refer to a universal character in a limited character encoding, like ASCII.
Although in popular usage character references are often called "entity references" or even "entities", this usage is wrong. A character reference is a reference to a character, not to an entity. Entity reference refers to the content of a named entity. An entity declaration is created by using the syntax in a document type definition (DTD) or XML schema. Then, the name defined in the entity declaration is subsequently used in the XML. When used in the XML, it is called an entity reference.
Famous quotes containing the words character, entity and/or reference:
“There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“What is this world of ours? A complex entity subject to sudden changes which all indicate a tendency to destruction; a swift succession of beings which follow one another, assert themselves and disappear; a fleeting symmetry; a momentary order.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
“The common behavior of mankind is the system of reference by means of which we interpret an unknown language.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)