javascript string replace &lt; into <

Question

Hey all, I basically output content into a div like this using jquery:

var text = $("#edit").val();
$("#output").text(text);

But I want to turn "&lt;" and "&gt;" into "<" and ">".

text.replace(/&lt;/,"<"); doesn't seem to be working for me...

Any ideas? Many thanks

Answer 1

You could use something like the unescapeHTML() function in prototype...

Adapted from prototype js source

function unescapeHTML(escapedHTML) {
  return escapedHTML.replace(/&lt;/g,'<').replace(/&gt;/g,'>').replace(/&amp;/g,'&');
}