Both are character references and refer to the same character (AMPERSAND, U+0026). & is a named or entity character reference and & is a numerical character reference.

In HTML5, they are equivalent in that example. Traditionally, in HTML, only & was correct but as with so many things, web developers blithely ignored this inconvenient rule and wrote.

& is the character reference for "An ampersand". &current; is not a standard character reference and so is an error (browsers may try to perform error recovery but you should not depend on.

Understanding the Context

Encoding & as & under all circumstances, for me, is an easier rule to live by, reducing the likelihood of errors and failures. Compare the following: which is easier?

HTML< >&"<>&"; XML5 : < >& " &apos HTML .

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&ampampquot& & HTMLHTML& &and & "HTML.

Key Insights

The only way that the & should be showing on the page is if you're double encoding the ampersand character (so the source of the page would be showing &amp;). This could be caused.

I know about Html Entity but I was trying to find who does the conversion - Browsers ?

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