Now U'll Know - are U sure U wanted to (LOL)

What is  ? Is it needed?

Short Answer

  is the entity used to represent a non-breaking space. It is essentially a standard space, the primary difference being that a browser should not break (or wrap) a line of text at the point that this   occupies.

Long Answer

  is the entity used to represent a non-breaking space. It is essentially a standard space, the primary difference being that a browser should not break (or wrap) a line of text at the point that this   occupies.

Many WYSIWYG HTML editors insert these   entities in an effort to control the layout of the HTML document. For example, such an editor may use a series of non-breaking spaces to indent a paragraph like this:

<P>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; This first line of text is supposed to be indented. However, many browsers will not render it as intended.
</P>

As the example mentions, some browsers will not, in fact, indent the text because of how that particular browser handles the &nbsp; entity. Some browsers collapse multiple, concurrent non-breaking spaces into a single space. This sometimes happens, even if there are regular spaces separating the consecutive &nbsp; entities. So keep in mind that this "technique&quot;;; can not be relied on.