XML node name clean up code

Question

I am trying to create an XML file based on data fields from a table, and I want to have the nodes named based on the value in a field from the table. The problem is that sometimes values entered in that column contain spaces and other characters not allowed in Node names.

Does anyone have any code that will cleanup a passed in string and repalce invalid characters with replacement text so that it can be reversed on the other end and get the original value back?

I am using .net (vb.net but I can read/convert c#)

Answer 1

It might be easier if you stored the original value if it were illegal as a node name in an attribute. Then you wouldn't worry about having some sort of complex to/from translation.

Answer 2

As a matter of fact I would go so far as to say that unless you have complete control over the data, then no translation process would ever work. So I second storing the original data either as an attribute or a child node.

Answer 3

You didn't say in your original post what language so here's a regex pattern that should get you started. This is QUICK so you'll need to test it.

([^A-Za-z0-9])|(\s)|(\t+)|(\c+)

Answer 4

I agree with @spoon16.