esc_attr() WP 2.8.0

Escaping for HTML attributes. Converts <, >, &, ", ' characters to HTML entities. Does not make double escaping.

The function is intended to convert a raw string into a valid one for output in HTML attributes.

Hooks in function

Return

String. Escaped string for use in HTML attributes.

Usage

<?php echo esc_attr( $text ) ?>

$text(string) (required)

Raw text for conversion.

Examples

#1 Example of usage

$text = "<span>(tag) '(quote) \"(double quote) &(ampersand)";
echo esc_attr( $text );

// returns:
// &lt;span&gt;(tag) &#039;(quote) &quot;(double quote) &amp;(ampersand)

#2 Example of double conversion

$text = "> and &";
echo esc_attr( $text );         // > and &
echo htmlspecialchars( $text ); // > and &

#3 Data cleaning on output

<?php $fname = ( isset( $_POST['fname'] ) ) ? $_POST['fname'] : ''; ?>
<input type="text" name="fname" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $fname ); ?>">

Code of esc attr: wp-includes/formatting.php ^{WP 5.2.1}

<?php
function esc_attr( $text ) {
	$safe_text = wp_check_invalid_utf8( $text );
	$safe_text = _wp_specialchars( $safe_text, ENT_QUOTES );
	/**
	 * Filters a string cleaned and escaped for output in an HTML attribute.
	 *
	 * Text passed to esc_attr() is stripped of invalid or special characters
	 * before output.
	 *
	 * @since 2.0.6
	 *
	 * @param string $safe_text The text after it has been escaped.
	 * @param string $text      The text prior to being escaped.
	 */
	return apply_filters( 'attribute_escape', $safe_text, $text );
}

Related Functions

From tag: esc_ (clean validate sanitize)

More from category: Sanitizing, Escaping