[thelist] name vs. number

[Joxn]

Hi everybody,
I'm starting a larger website project anew and have to make some
decisions now.

Should I work with names or numbers for umlauts, eg. ä or ä ?

I'm going to store this as "ä" in the DB now, but I wonder which I
should use for output to the browser. Which is the best cross-browser
and cross-platform solution?

Are there any articles / hints out there which I could read?

TIA,
Jörn
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