CFLib.org – Common Function Library Project

Description:
Converts HTML encoded entities into utf8 characters. Handy when working with UTF8 aware applications that need to use older content that might be full of unnecessarily HTML encoded characters. Tested on CF8-10.

Return Values:
A string with HTML entities replaced with UTF-8 characters

Example:

A typical example of some Spanish with encoded accented characters:
<cfset source = "Descripci&oacute;n: Esta promoci&oacute;n es &uacute;nica" />
Decode it:
<cfset decoded = htmlEntityToUTF8(source) />
Output will be : "Descripción: Esta promoción es única"

Parameters:

Full UDF Source:

/**
 * Converts HTML encoded entities into utf8 characters.
 * version 0.1 by Matt Casey
 * version 1.0 by Adam Cameron - using an array instead of a list converted to an array for the look-up data.  Made replacement case-insensitive.
 * version 1.1 by Adam Cameron - fixing bug that I introduced in v1.0: the replacement should *not* have been case-insensitive! Thanks for the heads-up jeremyhalliwell
 * 
 * @param source      A string to parse (Required)
 * @return A string with HTML entities replaced with UTF-8 characters 
 * @author Matt Casey (matt@digitalhappy.com) 
 * @version 1.1, July 28, 2013 
 */
string function htmlEntityToUTF8(required string source){
    var idx = 0;
    var ents = [
        "171","laquo","172","not","173","shy","174","reg","175","macr","176","deg","177","plusmn","178","sup2","179","sup3","180","acute","181","micro","182","para",
        "183","middot","184","cedil","185","sup1","186","ordm","187","raquo","188","frac14","189","frac12","190","frac34","191","iquest","192","Agrave","193","Aacute",
        "194","Acirc","195","Atilde","196","Auml","197","Aring","198","AElig","199","Ccedil","200","Egrave","201","Eacute","202","Ecirc","203","Euml","204","Igrave",
        "205","Iacute","206","Icirc","207","Iuml","208","ETH","209","Ntilde","210","Ograve","211","Oacute","212","Ocirc","213","Otilde","214","Ouml","215","times",
        "216","Oslash","217","Ugrave","218","Uacute","219","Ucirc","220","Uuml","221","Yacute","222","THORN","223","szlig","224","agrave","225","aacute","226","acirc",
        "227","atilde","228","auml","229","aring","230","aelig","231","ccedil","232","egrave","233","eacute","234","ecirc","235","euml","236","igrave","237","iacute",
        "238","icirc","239","iuml","240","eth","241","ntilde","242","ograve","243","oacute","244","ocirc","245","otilde","246","ouml","247","divide","248","oslash",
        "249","ugrave","250","uacute","251","ucirc","252","uuml","253","yacute","254","thorn","255","yuml","402","fnof","913","Alpha","914","Beta","915","Gamma","916","Delta",
        "917","Epsilon","918","Zeta","919","Eta","920","Theta","921","Iota","922","Kappa","923","Lambda","924","Mu","925","Nu","926","Xi","927","Omicron","928","Pi","929","Rho",
        "931","Sigma","932","Tau","933","Upsilon","934","Phi","935","Chi","936","Psi","937","Omega","945","alpha","946","beta","947","gamma","948","delta","949","epsilon",
        "950","zeta","951","eta","952","theta","953","iota","954","kappa","955","lambda","956","mu","957","nu","958","xi","959","omicron","960","pi","961","rho","962","sigmaf",
        "963","sigma","964","tau","965","upsilon","966","phi","967","chi","968","psi","969","omega","977","thetasym","978","upsih","982","piv","8226","bull","8230","hellip",
        "8242","prime","8243","Prime","8254","oline","8260","frasl","8472","weierp","8465","image","8476","real","8482","trade","8501","alefsym","8592","larr","8593","uarr",
        "8594","rarr","8595","darr","8596","harr","8629","crarr","8656","lArr","8657","uArr","8658","rArr","8659","dArr","8660","hArr","8704","forall","8706","part","8707","exist",
        "8709","empty","8711","nabla","8712","isin","8713","notin","8715","ni","8719","prod","8721","sum","8722","minus","8727","lowast","8730","radic","8733","prop","8734","infin",
        "8736","ang","8743","and","8744","or","8745","cap","8746","cup","8747","int","8756","there4","8764","sim","8773","cong","8776","asymp","8800","ne","8801","equiv","8804","le","8805","ge",
        "8834","sub","8835","sup","8836","nsub","8838","sube","8839","supe","8853","oplus","8855","otimes","8869","perp","8901","sdot","8968","lceil","8969","rceil","8970","lfloor",
        "8971","rfloor","9001","lang","9002","rang","9674","loz","9824","spades","9827","clubs","9829","hearts","9830","diams","338","OElig","339","oelig","352","Scaron","353","scaron",
        "376","Yuml","710","circ","732","tilde","8194","ensp","8195","emsp","8201","thinsp","8204","zwnj","8205","zwj","8206","lrm","8207","rlm","8211","ndash","8212","mdash","8216","lsquo",
        "8217","rsquo","8218","sbquo","8220","ldquo","8221","rdquo","8222","bdquo","8224","dagger","8225","Dagger","8240","permil","8249","lsaquo","8250","rsaquo","8364","euro" 
    ];
    for (idx=1; idx <=arrayLen(ents); idx+=2){
        arguments.source = replace(arguments.source, "&#ents[idx+1]#;", chr(ents[idx]), "all");    
    }
    
    return arguments.source;
}