jQuery's HTML() Function Decodes HTML Entities

it is not JQuery doing it but the browser's HTML parser. So the answer is no.

I was struggling with the same problem I was using a wyswyg editor and when using

<texarea id="htmlsource"><p>hello html</p></textarea>

<script>
var source= $("#htmlsource").html();
alert(source);
</script>

It encoded the HTML to &ltp&gt Hello world &lt/p&gt This was not what i'am expecting when using the .html() function. Logically you would expect the output the be HTML and not a encoded string for readable text.

I tested this in Chrome, IE9 and Firefox7 all with the same outcome. To fix this you can use the .text() function. Crazy right?!

<texarea id="htmlsource"><p>hello html</p></textarea>

<script>
var source= $("#htmlsource").text();
alert(source);
</script>

So the answer is YES you can.

Update: I have created a definitive guide to solutions as a fiddle here.

Ok, So I think I have an answer to your problem.

I was using ajax to go through xml files and create code in a text area to be copied into an html file. Don't ask why, I'll just say IT is restrictive here. Anyway, the list of links needed to look like this:

<a href="link.html#!page=01">Something</a>

well .html() was making it look like this:

<a href="link.html#%21page=01">Something</a>

This Caused problems with page loading. I guess the browser changes %21 => ! after the page loads.

What you need to do is make a variable out of what you want to .html() like this:

var prepReplaceEscape = $("#prep").html();

Then to put it in the place you want and use .replace() :

$("#output").text(prepReplaceEscape.replace(/%21/gi,"!"));

It's important to have /%21/gi this allows the .replace() method to keep going through the var. "%21" being what you want to replace.

I hope this helps. It's kinda messy but it worked for me.

If anyone has a better solution please let me know, I would love to know.