private static void defineEntity(String name,char value){
  if (_byName.get(name) == null) {
    _byName.put(name,new Integer(value));
    _byChar.put(new Integer(value),name);
  }
}

private static void defineEntity ( String name , char value ) { if ( _byName . get ( name ) == null ) { _byName . put ( name , new Integer ( value ) ) ; _byChar . put ( new Integer ( value ) , name ) ; } }
defines a new character reference . the reference ' s name and value are supplied . nothing happens if the character reference is already defined . < p / > unlike internal entities , character references are a string to single character mapping . they are used to map non - ascii characters both on parsing and printing , primarily for html documents . ' & lt ; amp ; ' is an example of a character reference .
