# apex:outputText

Displays text on a Visualforce page. You can customize the appearance of `<apex:outputText>` using CSS styles, in which case the generated text is wrapped in an HTML `<span>` tag. You can also escape the rendered text if it contains sensitive HTML and XML characters.

Use this component to get user input for a controller method that does not correspond to a field on an sObject. Only `<apex:inputField>` and `<apex:outputField>` can be used with sObject fields.

Use with nested param tags to format the text values, where {n} corresponds to the n-th nested param tag. The `value` attribute supports the same syntax as the MessageFormat class in Java.

:::note
In API version 31.0 and earlier, encrypted custom field values that are embedded in the `<apex:outputText>` component display in clear text. The `<apex:outputText>` component doesn't respect the View Encrypted Data permission for users. To prevent showing sensitive information to unauthorized users, use the `<apex:outputField>` tag instead.

In API version 32.0 and later, encrypted custom field values are masked.
:::

This component supports [HTML pass-through attributes](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.pages.meta/pages/pages_html_features_pass_through_attributes.htm) using the "html-" prefix. Pass-through attributes are attached to the generated container `<span>` tag.

## Basic formatting example

```apex
<apex:page>
    <apex:outputText style="font-style:italic" value="This is {0} text with {1}.">
       <apex:param value="my"/>
       <apex:param value="arguments"/>
    </apex:outputText>
</apex:page>
```

The example above renders the following HTML:

```html
<span id="theText" style="font-style:italic">This is my text with arguments.</span>
```

## Date formatting example

```apex
<apex:page>
   <apex:outputText value="The unformatted time right now is: {! NOW() }" />
   <br/>
   <apex:outputText value="The formatted time right now is:
         {0,date,yyyy.MM.dd G 'at' HH:mm:ss z}">
       <apex:param value="{! NOW() }" />
   </apex:outputText>
</apex:page>
```

The example above renders the following HTML:

```html
The unformatted time right now is: 11/20/2004 3:49 PM
<br />
The formatted time right now is: 2004.11.20 AD at 23:49:02 GMT  
```

## Currency formatting example

```apex
<!-- For this example to render properly, you must associate the Visualforce page
with a valid account record in the URL.
For example, if 001D000000IeChM is the account ID, the resulting URL should be:
https://MyDomain_login_URL/apex/myPage?id=001D000000IeChM
See the Visualforce Developer's Guide Quick Start Tutorial for more information. -->

<apex:page standardController="Account">
It is worth:
<apex:outputText value="{0, number, 000,000.00}">
       <apex:param value="{!Account.AnnualRevenue}" />
 </apex:outputText>
</apex:page>
```

The example above renders the following HTML:

```html
It is worth: 500,000,000.00
```

## Attributes

| Attribute Name | Attribute Type | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                | Required? | API Version | Access |
| -------------- | -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------- | ----------- | ------ |
| `dir`          | String         | The direction in which the generated HTML component is read. Possible values include "RTL" (right to left) or "LTR" (left to right).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |           | 10.0        | global |
| `escape`       | Boolean        | A Boolean value that specifies whether sensitive HTML and XML characters should be escaped in the HTML output generated by this component. If you don’t specify escape="false", the character escape sequence displays as written. Be aware that setting this value to "false" may be a security risk because it allows arbitrary content, including JavaScript, that could be used in a malicious manner. |           | 10.0        | global |
| `id`           | String         | An identifier that allows the outputText component to be referenced by other components in the page.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |           | 10.0        | global |
| `label`        | String         | A text value that allows to display a label next to the output text                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |           | 23.0        |        |
| `lang`         | String         | The base language for the generated HTML output, for example, "en" or "en-US". For more information on this attribute, see [the W3C specifications](http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/dirlang.html).                                                                                                                                                                                                  |           | 10.0        | global |
| `rendered`     | Boolean        | A Boolean value that specifies whether the component is rendered on the page. If not specified, this value defaults to true.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |           | 10.0        | global |
| `style`        | String         | The style used to display the outputText component, used primarily for adding inline CSS styles.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |           | 10.0        | global |
| `styleClass`   | String         | The style class used to display the outputText component, used primarily to designate which CSS styles are applied when using an external CSS stylesheet.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |           | 10.0        | global |
| `title`        | String         | The text to display as a tooltip when the user's mouse pointer hovers over this component.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |           | 10.0        | global |
| `value`        | Object         | The text displayed when this component is rendered. This value supports the same syntax as the MessageFormat class in Java.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                |           | 10.0        | global |