# 'Approximately equals' HTML character bug

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/approximately-equals-html-character-bug/47755>\
**Category:** Bug\
**Created:** [2016年七月25日 11:51 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/approximately-equals-html-character-bug/47755 "2016-07-25T11:51:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![glynhudson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/glynhudson/32/120597_2.png) [@glynhudson](https://meta.discourse.org/u/glynhudson)\
**Post date:** [2016年七月25日 11:51 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/approximately-equals-html-character-bug/47755/1 "2016-07-25T11:51:25Z")

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Trying to use ≈ to donate the approximately equals sign results in the post preview pane rendering the symbol correctly but when posted HTML character is not correctly interpreted.

Tested on Opera and Chrome Version 52.0.2743.82 (64-bit)

See preview pane on the right is correct:

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/a/d/adae0b38fb33ea3f021d506e720095540fd48e78.png)

Update: work around is use `&asymp;` to generate approx equal symbol _ **≈** _

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**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [2016年七月25日 16:21 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/approximately-equals-html-character-bug/47755/2 "2016-07-25T16:21:44Z")

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As I recall this has to do with some dependency like Nokogiri, it is not our bug. @sam can you clarify?

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**Author:** ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)\
**Post date:** [2016年七月26日 09:48 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/approximately-equals-html-character-bug/47755/3 "2016-07-26T09:48:44Z")

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nokogiri bug (which they blame on libxml), we are eventually going to have to get our hands dirty and hack the c code.

[https://meta.discourse.org/t/certain-unicode-entities-are-being-escaped/19898](https://meta.discourse.org/t/certain-unicode-entities-are-being-escaped/19898)

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**Author:** ![elijah](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/elijah/32/104055_2.png) [@elijah](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elijah)\
**Post date:** [2016年七月26日 19:22 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/approximately-equals-html-character-bug/47755/4 "2016-07-26T19:22:13Z")

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The bug tracker for libxml2 does not inspire hope.

HTML5 bugs from 2012 are still marked “new”: [https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=product%3Alibxml2%20html5](https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=product%3Alibxml2%20html5)

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**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [2016年七月27日 01:39 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/approximately-equals-html-character-bug/47755/5 "2016-07-27T01:39:11Z")

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