Convert Special Characters to HTML - ColdFusion - coldfusion

Question

I need to convert a lot of special characters to their html format and I am trying to do this with a function that is using ReplaceList but something is wrong with the function or the values I am passing to it.
This is the function
<cffunction name="HtmlUnEditFormat" access="public" returntype="string" output="no" displayname="HtmlUnEditFormat" hint="Undo escaped characters">
<cfargument name="str" type="string" required="Yes" />
<cfscript>
var lEntities = "&##xE7;,&##xF4;,&##xE2;,Î,Ç,È,Ó,Ê,&OElig,Â,«,»,À,É,≤,ý,χ,∑,′,ÿ,∼,β,⌈,ñ,ß,„,´,·,–,ς,®,†,⊕,õ,η,⌉,ó,­,>,φ,∠,‏,α,∩,↓,υ,ℑ,³,ρ,é,¹,<,¢,¸,π,⊃,÷,ƒ,¿,ê, ,∅,∀, ,γ,¡,ø,¬,à,ð,ℵ,º,ψ,⊗,δ,ö,°,≅,ª,‹,♣,â,ò,ï,♦,æ,∧,◊,è,¾,&,⊄,ν,“,∈,ç,ˆ,©,á,§,—,ë,κ,∉,⌊,≥,ì,↔,∗,ô,∞,¦,∫,¯,½,¤,≈,λ,⁄,‘,…,œ,£,♥,−,ã,ε,∇,∃,ä,μ,¼, ,≡,•,←,«,‾,∨,€,µ,≠,∪,å,ι,í,⊥,¶,→,»,û,ο,‚,ϑ,∋,∂,”,℘,‰,²,σ,⋅,š,¥,ξ,±,ℜ,þ,〉,ù,√,‍,∴,↑,×, ,θ,⌋,⊂,⊇,ü,’,ζ,™,î,ϖ,‌,〈,˜,ú,¨,∝,ϒ,ω,↵,τ,⊆,›,∏,",‎,♠";
var lEntitiesChars = "ç,ô,â,Î,Ç,È,Ó,Ê,Œ,Â,«,»,À,É,?,ý,?,?,?,Ÿ,?,?,?,ñ,ß,„,´,·,–,?,®,‡,?,õ,?,?,ó,­,>,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,³,?,é,¹,<,¢,¸,?,?,÷,ƒ,¿,ê,?,?,?,?,?,¡,ø,¬,à,ð,?,º,?,?,?,ö,°,?,ª,‹,?,â,ò,ï,?,æ,?,?,è,¾,&,?,?,“,?,ç,ˆ,©,á,§,—,ë,?,?,?,?,ì,?,?,ô,?,¦,?,¯,½,¤,?,?,?,‘,…,œ,£,?,?,ã,?,?,?,ä,?,¼, ,?,•,?,«,?,?,€,µ,?,?,å,?,í,?,¶,?,»,û,?,‚,?,?,?,”,?,‰,²,?,?,š,¥,?,±,?,þ,?,ù,?,?,?,?,×,?,?,?,?,?,ü,’,?,™,î,?,?,?,˜,ú,¨,?,?,?,?,?,?,›,?,"",?,?";
</cfscript>
<cfreturn ReplaceList(arguments.str, lEntities, lEntitiesChars) />
</cffunction>
This is how I am calling it:
<cfoutput>
<cfloop query="local.q" startrow="2">
#HtmlUnEditFormat(consultServiceType)# <br />
</cfloop>
</cfoutput>
These are the strings I am passing to it:
Security?
Security Guard®
Alarm System©
Private Investigator;
I am not getting any errors back (I had a cftry in the function before) and the strings come back the same
EDIT:
I've tried using #FindNoCase('©',consultServiceType)# and is returning 0 so I guess something is wrong with the string I am passing in?

Answer 1

You're using CF11, did you try EncodeForHTML() ?

Answer 2

The accepted answer is the better approach (don't reinvent the wheel), but your function isn't working because you have lEntities and lEntitiesChars mixed up.
<cffunction name="HtmlUnEditFormat" access="public" returntype="string" output="no" displayname="HtmlUnEditFormat" hint="Undo escaped characters">
<cfargument name="str" type="string" required="Yes" />
<cfscript>
var lEntities = "&##xE7;,&##xF4;,&##xE2;,Î,Ç,È,Ó,Ê,&OElig,Â,«,»,À,É,≤,ý,χ,∑,′,ÿ,∼,β,⌈,ñ,ß,„,´,·,–,ς,®,†,⊕,õ,η,⌉,ó,­,>,φ,∠,‏,α,∩,↓,υ,ℑ,³,ρ,é,¹,<,¢,¸,π,⊃,÷,ƒ,¿,ê, ,∅,∀, ,γ,¡,ø,¬,à,ð,ℵ,º,ψ,⊗,δ,ö,°,≅,ª,‹,♣,â,ò,ï,♦,æ,∧,◊,è,¾,&,⊄,ν,“,∈,ç,ˆ,©,á,§,—,ë,κ,∉,⌊,≥,ì,↔,∗,ô,∞,¦,∫,¯,½,¤,≈,λ,⁄,‘,…,œ,£,♥,−,ã,ε,∇,∃,ä,μ,¼, ,≡,•,←,«,‾,∨,€,µ,≠,∪,å,ι,í,⊥,¶,→,»,û,ο,‚,ϑ,∋,∂,”,℘,‰,²,σ,⋅,š,¥,ξ,±,ℜ,þ,〉,ù,√,‍,∴,↑,×, ,θ,⌋,⊂,⊇,ü,’,ζ,™,î,ϖ,‌,〈,˜,ú,¨,∝,ϒ,ω,↵,τ,⊆,›,∏,",‎,♠";
var lEntitiesChars = "ç,ô,â,Î,Ç,È,Ó,Ê,Œ,Â,«,»,À,É,?,ý,?,?,?,Ÿ,?,?,?,ñ,ß,„,´,·,–,?,®,‡,?,õ,?,?,ó,­,>,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,³,?,é,¹,<,¢,¸,?,?,÷,ƒ,¿,ê,?,?,?,?,?,¡,ø,¬,à,ð,?,º,?,?,?,ö,°,?,ª,‹,?,â,ò,ï,?,æ,?,?,è,¾,&,?,?,“,?,ç,ˆ,©,á,§,—,ë,?,?,?,?,ì,?,?,ô,?,¦,?,¯,½,¤,?,?,?,‘,…,œ,£,?,?,ã,?,?,?,ä,?,¼, ,?,•,?,«,?,?,€,µ,?,?,å,?,í,?,¶,?,»,û,?,‚,?,?,?,”,?,‰,²,?,?,š,¥,?,±,?,þ,?,ù,?,?,?,?,×,?,?,?,?,?,ü,’,?,™,î,?,?,?,˜,ú,¨,?,?,?,?,?,?,›,?,"",?,?";
</cfscript>
<cfreturn ReplaceList(arguments.str, lEntitiesChars, lEntities) />
</cffunction>
<cfoutput>#htmluneditformat("Company?")#</cfoutput>
Further, #ReplaceList()# in both ACF and Railo/Lucee recurse through the list, which means the order of the lists matter. With the fix I suggest, ? becomes &le;. A fix to this would be to move & and the code for it to the beginning of each list.
Consider this simple piece of code
<cfoutput>#replacelist("abc","a,b","b,c")#</cfoutput>
You would probably expect the output to be "bcc", but that's not how ReplaceList works, it works something more like this
<cfset sx = "abc">
<cfset listf = "a,b">
<cfset listr = "b,c">
<cfloop from="1" to="#listlen(listf)#" index="i">
<cfset sx = replace(sx,listgetat(listf,i),listgetat(listr,i),"ALL")>
<!--- iteration one replaces a with b to make bbc --->
<!--- iteration two replaces b with c to make ccc --->
</cfloop>
I'm not suggesting that someone use this code when CF has the built in functionality, I'm merely explaining why it doesn't work and a pitfall of ReplaceList().