HTML text not formatting

so I have HTML formatted Sql text stored in my database, I populate the contents of a <p></p> tag with it on page load, but though HTML tags are showing up in the text they are not formatting the text. Is there a step I am missing?

From stackoverflow

• Use "html_entity_decode($str)" on the stored text when displaying.

• So how you outputting the HTML? You have a HtmlGenericControl running at server representing the <p> tag? Maybe you using InnerText instead of InnerHtml? Or, it could be a HTML encoding/decoding issue. Take a look at the HTML source.

• When you say that you are "populating the contents of a <p></p> tag" - what exactly do you mean? Typically, the choices that I see are A) using a Label and assigning the Text field or B) simply entering a string value directly where you want your HTML to appear.

  <%#StringToWriteToHTMLStream%>
  

  You'll need to call Databind() after setting the string contents from your database record.

  Is this all you are after?