Testing Special JavaScript Characters

Question

Let's say I have this HTML element:

<td>&mdash;</td>

When analyzed by browsers, it is —converted to the actual em dash, for example:

<td>—</td>

How can I check —without using other characters in my JavaScript code?

console.log(elem.innerHTML == "—"); // false
console.log(elem.textContent == "—"); // false
console.log(elem.innerHTML == "—"); // true
console.log(elem.textContent == "—"); // true

Answer 1

You can create a new DOM element and compare two:

/**
 * Test that a DOM element inner HTML is === —
 */
function mdashTest(el) {
    var tempEl = document.createElement('div');
    tempEl.innerHTML = '—';

    return el.innerHTML === tempEl.innerHTML;
}

// Test it!
elem = document.getElementById('dash');
alert( mdashTest( elem ) );

<div id="dash">&mdash;</div>

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Answer 2

The unicode equivalent of emdash is equal \u2014. You can use this unicode to compare with html.

HTML UTF, UTF-8. https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/HTML/Element/meta#Attributes

var dash = document.getElementById('dash').innerText;

alert(dash === '\u2014');

<div id="dash">&mdash;</div>

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Answer 3

I suggest that:

• across DOMParser()

function parseToText(code) {
  return new DOMParser().parseFromString('<em>' + code + '</em>', "text/html").firstChild.textContent;
}
var is = document.getElementById('text').innerHTML == parseToText("&mdash;");
document.write("isEquals ", is, parseToText("&mdash;"));

<em id="text">&mdash;</em>

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2. Or using jQuery:

function parseToText(code) {
  return $("<em>" + code + "</em>").html()
}
var isEquals = document.getElementById('text').innerText == parseToText("&mdash;");
document.write("isEquals ", isEquals);

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<em id="text">&mdash;</em>

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3. Or using regular JavaScript:

function parseToText(code) {
  return document.createRange().createContextualFragment(code).firstChild.textContent;
}
var isEquals = document.getElementById('text').innerText == parseToText("—");
document.write("isEquals ", isEquals);

<em id="text">&mdash;</em>

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