Symbol Encoded Format (SEF)

Description

If text to be used is specified within a hidden field value, certain characters such as the "<" and ">" need to be encoded. SEF allows symbols used in HTML to be quoted.

The following replacements are done:

  • &gt; is replaced with >
  • &lt; with <
  • &dquote; with "
  • &amp; with &

Note that this format is similar to the encoding done for HTML, but is different.

Example

If the text to filled in is:
5 &lt; 10 &gt;= 7. &dquote;&amp;&dquote; is an ampersand.
the result is:
5 < 10 >= 7. "&" is an ampersand.

tosef.pl

There is a perl script, tosef.pl, that will take some text in and output the equivalent text, but in symbol encoded format. Input is to standard input and output is to standard output. Here is the free distribution of tosef.pl.

See Also
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Copyright © by James Hoagland
www.hoagland.org | webmaster@hoagland.org
1 February 1996