What is the difference between and ?

Question

I have written one XSLT to transform xml to html. If input xml node contains only space then it inserts the space using following code.

&         


        

Answer 1

It's the same. It's a numeric character reference. A0 is the same number as 160. The first is in base 16 (hexadecimal) and the second is in base 10 (decimal, everyday base).

Answer 2

  is a non-breaking space ( ).

  is just the same, but in hexadecimal (in HTML entities, the x character shows that a hexadecimal number is coming). There is basically no difference, A0 and 160 are the same numbers in a different base.

You should decide whether you really need a non-breaking space, or a simple space would suffice.