Invalid Characters in XML

Question

Hey all,

I am working with some XML at the moment.

I have nodes that hold strings like below:

<node>This is a string</node>

Some of the strings that I am passing to the nodes will have characters like &, #, $ etc.

<node>This is a string & so is this</node>

This is not valid due to the &

I cannot wrap these strings in CDATA as they need to be as they are. I have tried looking online for a list of characters that cannot be put in XML nodes without being in a CDATA.

Could anyone point me in the direction of one or provide me with a list of illegal characters?

Cheers

Eef

Answer 1

The predeclared characters are:

& < > " '

http://xml.silmaril.ie/authors/specials/

Answer 2

Check this link:

The XML FAQ: What are the special characters in XML?

Answer 3

The only illegal characters are &, < and > (as well as " or ' in attributes).

They're escaped using XML entities, in this case you want & for &.

Really, though, you should use a tool or library that writes XML for you and abstracts this kind of thing away for you so you don't have to worry about it.