how to replace html code to normal chars

In javascirpt:

创建html节点，在取出节点的文本，创建的节点不用添加到Dom中

function getVal(str){
var temp=document.createElement("p");
temp.innerHTML=str;
return temp.firstChild.nodeValue;
}
var str='Tom & Jerry';
getVal(str) returns 'Tom & Jerry'.

in PHP:

html_entity_decode() 方法可以实现

http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?136026-RESOLVED-convert-HTML-Entities-into-normal-characters