Using Special Characters in XML
Symbol (name) | Escape Sequence |
< (less-than) | < or < |
> (greater-than) | > or > |
& (ampersand) | & |
' (apostrophe or single quote) | ' |
Symbol (name) | Escape Sequence |
---|---|
< (less-than) | < or < |
> (greater-than) | > or > |
& (ampersand) | & |
' (apostrophe or single quote) | ' |
How to include special characters in XML tags and attributes?
Because XML syntax uses some characters for tags and attributes it is not possible to directly use those characters inside XML tags or attribute values. To include special characters inside XML files you must use the numeric character reference instead of that character.
How many special characters are there in an XML declaration?
Just five: < ( < ), & ( & ), > ( > ), " ( " ), and ' ( ' ). For normal text ( not markup), there are no special characters except < and &: just make sure your XML Declaration refers to the correct encoding scheme for the language and/or writing system you want to use, and that your computer correctly stores the file using that encoding scheme.
How to include special characters inside XML files using Prolog?
To include special characters inside XML files you must use the numeric character reference instead of that character. The numeric character reference must be UTF-8 because the supported encoding for XML files is defined in the prolog as encoding="UTF-8" and should not be changed. The numeric character reference uses the format: !
What are the special symbols used in XML files?
When you use wizards to customize any string in your XML file, you can use the following special symbols: <, >, &, ', ". You can also use these symbols when you are editing a query in Expert Mode or when you are manually entering SQL code into XML files between CDATA tags. If you are editing your XML files manually, ...
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What are the special characters in XML?
For normal text ( not markup), there are no special characters except < and &: just make sure your XML Declaration refers to the correct encoding scheme for the language and/or writing system you want to use, and that your computer correctly stores the file using that encoding scheme. See the question on non-Latin characters for a longer explanation.
What character starts entity markup?
The ampersand character ( & ) starts entity markup (the first character of a character entity reference).
Why do you use numeric form in a schema?
If you are using a Schema, you must use the numeric form for all except the five above because Schemas have no way to make character entity declarations. There are circumstances where you can use special characters as themselves, such as in CDATA Sections.
What are the keywords that are reserved names?
There are keywords like DOCTYPE and IMPLIED which are reserved Names, but they are prefixed by a flag character (the Markup Declaration Open character or the Reserved Name Indicator) so that they cannot be confused with user-specified Names.
When to use apostrophes in a string?
The apostrophe or single-quote character ( ') can be symbolised with this character entity reference when you need to embed a single-quote or apostrophe inside a string which is already single-quoted.
Do you have to declare all characters in a DTD?
If you are using a DTD then you must declare all character entities you need to use, so it would be good practice also to declare any of the five above that you plan on using. If you are using a Schema, you must use the numeric form for all except the five above because Schemas have no way to make character entity declarations.
Is control character allowed in XML?
Most control characters are prohibited in XML: see the Specification for exact details. There are also no reserved words as such in the user namespace of XML: you can call an element element and an attribute attribute and so on as in the following (perverse) example:
How to use reserved characters in XML?
The Symbols like open bracket (<) and ampersand (&) are reserved for the XML mark up as every element tag in XML begins with ‘<’. When an XML character like < and > are encountered by the XML parser, it assumes a new element tag is about to start. These are meta-characters denoting XML tags, so basically, they are represented using the entities. Some entities are replaced with character references in the content. These entities are used to represent items of data in the XML document rather than using the data itself. When writing an XML document, few symbols can neglect XML validating, and while processing instructions, few XML editors substitute the literals automatically. The five pre-defined reserved characters are listed below, and this table of characters shown should be encoded, and it is preferred to use in URL and other string methods as well.
What is the advantage of XML syntax?
A special advantage of XML syntax is that few characters are reserved for language purpose and need to be escaped.
What is CDATA in XML?
These entities are express characters without ambiguity and used to delimit tags in XML. To confuse the tags with the tags, a simple solution is to escape the characters so that the parser assumes them as data instead of mark-up. The above-mentioned entities are used as attributes, text, and elements in the XML document. Also, such entities are difficult in reading; therefore CDATA section can be used. The XML processor interprets these characters for the analysis of the source. And these are authorized by XML entities to type carefully.
Why is the numeric character reference UTF-8?
The numeric character reference must be UTF-8 because the supported encoding for XML files is defined in the prolog as encoding="UTF-8" and should not be changed. The numeric character reference uses the format: &#nn; decimal form. &#xhh; hexadecimal form. Code. Name.
Can you use special characters in XML?
Because XML syntax uses some characters for tags and attributes it is not possible to directly use those characters inside XML tags or attribute values. To include special characters inside XML files you must use the numeric character reference instead of that character.
What character is the ampersand in a CDATA?
The ampersand character ( &) and the left angle bracket ( <) must not appear in their literal form, except when used as markup delimiters, or within a comment, a processing instruction, or a CDATA section. If they are needed elsewhere, they must be escaped using either numeric character references or the strings " & " and " < " respectively.
Is XML 1.0 predefined?
The W3C does mention, in Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition), certain predefined entity references. But it says that these entities are predefined (in the same way that © is predefined); not that they must be escaped:
How to Use Reserved Characters in Xml?
- The Symbols like open bracket (<) and ampersand (&) are reserved for the XML mark up as every element tag in XML begins with ‘<’. When an XML character like < and > are encountered by the XML parser, it assumes a new element tag is about to start. These are meta-characters denoting XML tags, so basically, they are represented using the entities. So...
Examples
- In this section, we will be shown how to use characters in Programming Language by escaping features. Let’s get started.
Conclusion
- This article demonstrates on reserved characters of XML, which has five entities. Here we have explored in an example; they showed how to escape this XML entity for encode test process. Special characters in XML can be removed using JSON and java. So, when we decide to create an XML from any input source that has these reserved characters, care should be taken as more cli…
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