How to allow &nbsp with wp_kses()?

Question

not sure the difference but I used &nbsp for adding a white space
..then passed it through wp_kses()

The correct HTML entity for a non-breaking space is   — note the ; which is required and without it (i.e. &nbsp), the entity is not valid and when used with wp_kses(), you’d get &nbsp instead of a non-breaking space.

strangely it was working fine before I used wp_kses()

I’m pretty sure it’s because the browser is smart enough and auto-corrected it to  . 🙂

So, always use valid HTML entities and also tags (e.g. close a <div> with a </div>), regardless you use wp_kses() or not. Don’t rely on “intelligent guess” or auto correction by the browser.