# Escaping international characters

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/escaping-international-characters/99743>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 25, 2006, 7:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/escaping-international-characters/99743 "2006-07-25T07:47:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![alexanderl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@alexanderl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alexanderl)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 7:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/escaping-international-characters/99743/1 "2006-07-25T07:47:18Z")

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Hello,

This seems rather simple but it doesn’t work as expected:

I have a string like “'école” I would like to get “école”.

I tried:

@aName = CGI.escapeHTML(myString)

but it doesn’t work?

(I am not doing a rails application, just a simple script)

Thanks,

## Alex

Alexander L.  
Service d’Informatique Médicale  
Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
+41 22 372 88 62  
+41 79 420 79 73

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**Author:** ![alexanderl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@alexanderl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alexanderl)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 8:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/escaping-international-characters/99743/2 "2006-07-25T08:00:24Z")

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Alexander L. wrote:

> but it doesn’t work?
> 
> (I am not doing a rails application, just a simple script)

My fear is that escapeHTML simply isn’t that smart.

You might have to hand-code those cases. If it comes to that,  
please share it with everyone else. Maybe it could even  
find its way back into the lib.

Where is James B. when you need him? He was always good  
at escaping international characters.

Hal

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alexanderl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@alexanderl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alexanderl)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 9:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/escaping-international-characters/99743/3 "2006-07-25T09:12:06Z")

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On 25/07/06, Alexander L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> This seems rather simple but it doesn’t work as expected:
> 
> I have a string like “'école” I would like to get “école”.

Get this:

[http://htmlentities.rubyforge.org/](http://htmlentities.rubyforge.org/)

And do this:

HTMLEntities.encode\_entities(“école”, :basic, :named)

# =\> “école”

(Make sure that you are using UTF-8)

Paul.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alexanderl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@alexanderl](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alexanderl)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 11:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/escaping-international-characters/99743/4 "2006-07-25T11:16:16Z")

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## Exactly what I needed, thanks!

Alexander L.  
Service d’Informatique Médicale  
Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
+41 22 372 88 62  
+41 79 420 79 73