c:out is a tag used to display the result of an expression in the web browser, which works similarly to the way JSP's <%=...%> expression tag works. The only difference is that this tag helps avoid HTML characters so that you can avoid cross-site scripting.
<c:out> Tag Syntax
Syntax:
<c:out value="value/expression" default="<string>" escapeXml="<true or false>"/>
Attributes
| Attribute | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| value | Yes | None | This attribute is for evaluating expressions and displaying information. |
| default | No | Body | This attribute is used to display a default value if the resulting value of the <c:out> tag is null. |
| escapeXml | No | true | This attribute checks whether the '&', '<', and '>' special characters in the resulting string should be converted to their respective HTML entities. |
<c:out> Tag Examples
Here is an example where this <c:out> Tag is only displaying information to the web browser:
Example:
<%@ taglib uri = "http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix = "c" %>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Example of out in core-JSTL</title>
</head>
<body>
<c:out value = "${'<p>Example of c:out for Output</p>'}" default="Not Available" escapeXml="true"/>
</body>
</html>Output:
<p>Example of c:out for Output</p>
Another example where this tag is used to display the result of an expression in the web browser:
Example:
The sum of two numbers is: <c:out value="${2+5}" />Output:
The sum of two numbers is: 7