HTML: Should I encode greater than or not? ( > > )

Question

When encoding possibly unsafe data, is there a reason to encode >?

• It validates either way.
• The browser interprets the same either way

Answer 1

The HTML4 specification in its section 5.3.2 says that

authors should use ">" (ASCII decimal 62) in text instead of ">"

so I believe you should encode the greater > sign as > (because you should obey the standards).