JavaScript HTMLize (Using Regular Expressions)

Often we are faced with the task of converting HTML special characters. I always used to write this functionality in the server side. But having this functionality in the client side would save server's processing time. Also some functionality like a preview of text entered could be efficiently achieved by client side scripting. Now, the characters to be changed:

Special Character	Corresponding HTML/XML
&	&
<	&lt;
>	&gt;
"	&quot;
\n	<br/>\n

The JavaScript function to convert the same:

<script language="javascript">
function htmlize(str){
        str = str.replace(/\&/g,"&amp;");
        str = str.replace(/\</g,"&lt;");
        str = str.replace(/\>/g,"&gt;");
        str = str.replace(/\"/g,"&quot;");
        str = str.replace(/\n/g,"<br/>\n");
        return str;
}
</script>

Now would you like to check this functionality? Add some special characters, and click on the `HTMLize' button: