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HTML charset Attribute


Definition and Usage

When used by the <meta> element, the charset attribute specifies the character encoding for the HTML document.

When used by the <script> element, the charset attribute specifies the character encoding used in an external script file.

The HTML5 specification encourages web developers to use the UTF-8 character set, which covers almost all of the characters and symbols in the world! 


Applies to

The charset attribute can be used on the following elements:

Elements Attribute
<meta> charset
<script> charset

Examples

Meta Example

Specify the character encoding for the HTML document:

<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
</head>
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Script Example

An external JavaScript with an UTF-8 character set:

<script src="myscripts.js" charset="UTF-8"></script>
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Browser Support

The charset attribute has the following browser support for each element:

Element
meta Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
script Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes