Double escape XML File

Question

Hi! I have a simple xml file like this one:

<xml>
  <check>
    <a>b&lt;</a>
    <b>
      <test>asdf</test>
    </b>
    <test>jj&amp;j</test>
    </check>
</xml>

I would like to "double escape" all special chars so it will result in < and & with a simple linq to xml statement. The xml should still be valid, only the values need to be escaped. Anyone knows a solution for this?

The resulting xml should look like this:

<xml>
  <check>
    <a>b&amp;lt;</a>
    <b>
      <test>asdf</test>
    </b>
    <test>jj&amp;amp;j</test>
    </check>
</xml>

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

If you know that you only have encoded entities in the text nodes, you could simply replace every instance of & with &.

Though why you would even need to do such a thing escapes me.

Answer 2

You can't have & in the name of an element, attribute, or declaration so the only possible place for it is in the values (text nodes and attribute values). Since this is precisely where you say you want to do this replace, then a simple blind replace is the way to go. Whether you should use string.Replace() or a streaming method depends on usage and the size of the entire body.

I agree with everyone else, this smells bad.