XML file and & character as data

[BenI]

Hello,

I have a XML file using Iso 8859-1 encoding.
Every time when I try to put & character as Tag's value
like <tag>This is & character</tag> Exception is shown
in my application. I use XMLDocument reader in .NET platform.

How should people code & character as an ordinary data character?
I don't mean any platform dependent solution just XML's point of view.

Cheers!

[Richard Tobin]

In article <e2**********@n yytiset.pp.htv. fi>, BenI <be*****@yahoo. com> wrote:

I have a XML file using Iso 8859-1 encoding.
It's nothing to do with the encoding.
Every time when I try to put & character as Tag's value
like <tag>This is & character</tag> Exception is shown
in my application.

& is used in XML for entity references. To get the ampersand
character, you have to type "&amp;", for example:

<tag>This is &amp; character</tag>

-- Richard

[Stephen Marjoribanks]

BenI wrote:

Hello,

I have a XML file using Iso 8859-1 encoding.
Every time when I try to put & character as Tag's value
like <tag>This is & character</tag> Exception is shown
in my application. I use XMLDocument reader in .NET platform.

How should people code & character as an ordinary data character?
I don't mean any platform dependent solution just XML's point of view.

Cheers!

Use the escape code &amp;

Steve

[Joseph Kesselman]

Richard Tobin wrote:

& is used in XML for entity references. To get the ampersand
character, you have to type "&amp;", for example:

Or use a numeric character escape, & or &#x26;.

You'll also need to do this for the < and > characters (&lt; and &gt;).

Note that if you're manipulating the data through an XML API such as SAX
or DOM, conversion between the character and its XML escaped version, or
vice versa, will be handled automagically for you.

--
Joe Kesselman / Beware the fury of a patient man. -- John Dryden

[Harrie]

Joseph Kesselman said the following on 17-04-2006 17:12 +0200:

Richard Tobin wrote:

& is used in XML for entity references. To get the ampersand
character, you have to type "&amp;", for example:

Or use a numeric character escape, & or &#x26;.

You'll also need to do this for the < and > characters (&lt; and &gt;).

And single and double-quotes, see:

"What are the special characters in XML?"
http://xml.silmaril.ie/authors/specials/

--
Regards
Harrie

[Joseph Kesselman]

Harrie wrote:

And single and double-quotes

When they appear within attributes quoted with that same character, yes.

--
Joe Kesselman / Beware the fury of a patient man. -- John Dryden

[Jukka K. Korpela]

Harrie <sp*****@linux. org.invalid> wrote:

You'll also need to do this for the < and > characters (&lt; and &gt;).

And single and double-quotes, see:

"What are the special characters in XML?"
http://xml.silmaril.ie/authors/specials/

This is going too far. You are saying that we need to escape all of these
characters. The cited document explains the situation better. The details are
somewhat complicated, but the short story is (using the loose word "escaped"
to mean "written as an entity reference or as a character reference"):

1) "&" must always be escaped when not used in its special XML meaning
2) "<" must always be escaped when not used in its special XML meaning
3) ">" does not need to be escaped, but may be escaped when not used
in its special XML meaning; in CDATA sections, it must be escaped
for compatibility
4) the Ascii quotation mark " does not need to be escaped (but may be escaped
when not used as an attribute value delimiter), except in the special case
where it appears inside an attribute value delimited by Ascii quotation
marks
5) similarly for the Ascii apostrophe '.

--
Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

[Peter Flynn]

BenI wrote:

Hello,

I have a XML file using Iso 8859-1 encoding.
Every time when I try to put & character as Tag's value
See http://xml.silmaril.ie/authors/makeup/
If you think tags and elements are the same thing you are already in
considerable trouble.
like <tag>This is & character</tag> Exception is shown
in my application. I use XMLDocument reader in .NET platform.

How should people code & character as an ordinary data character?

&amp;

///Peter
--
XML FAQ: http://xml.silmaril.ie/

[Alan J. Flavell]

On Mon, 17 Apr 2006, Peter Flynn wrote:

If you think tags and elements are the same thing you are already in
considerable trouble.

See http://www.flightlab.com/~joe/sgml/faq-not.txt part 5.

Sorry, but that really was inevitable. :-}

[Harrie]

Jukka K. Korpela said the following on 17-04-2006 19:23 +0200:

Harrie <sp*****@linux. org.invalid> wrote:

You'll also need to do this for the < and > characters (&lt; and &gt;).

And single and double-quotes, see:

"What are the special characters in XML?"
http://xml.silmaril.ie/authors/specials/
This is going too far. You are saying that we need to escape all of these
characters. [..]

I didn't intend to say that, I should have thought longer about my
words; I see my error, thanks for the correction.
[..] The cited document explains the situation better.

That's why I provided the link, I wanted to help the OP understand which
five character have special meaning in XML, but my very short post
missed it's point.

--
Regards
Harrie