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HOW TO: Locate and Replace Special Characters in an XML File with Visual Basic .NET

This article was previously published under Q308060
This article describes how to replace special characters in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file by using Visual Basic .NET.

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Description of the Technique

XML predefines the following five entity references for special characters that would otherwise be interpreted as part of markup language:

Character NameEntity ReferenceCharacter ReferenceNumeric Reference
Left angle bracket&lt;<&#38;#60;
Right angle bracket&gt;>&#62;
Straight quotation mark&quot;"&#39;

You can use entity and character references to escape the left angle bracket, the ampersand, and other delimiters. You can also use numeric character references; they are expanded immediately when they are recognized and they are treated as character data, so you can use the numeric character references

If you are declaring either of the following two entities
  • lt
  • amp
you have to declare them as internal entities whose replacement text is a character reference to the respective character (the left angle bracket or the ampersand) that is being escaped; the double escaping is required for these entities so that references to them produce a well-formed result.

If you are declaring any of the following three entities
  • gt
  • apos
  • quot
you have to declare them as internal entities whose replacement text is the single character being escaped.

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Determine Whether a Special Character Replacement Is Required

Not Required: XML Files in Which the Data Is Retrieved from a Database

When you are using the Microsoft .NET Framework, data is retrieved and stored in a DataSet. When you are writing data from a DataSet to an XML file by using the WriteXml method, the special characters that are referred to in the "Summary" section are replaced with the respective character references; therefore, when you are writing XML files and you are using a DataSet, no special replacement process is required.

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Required: An XML File with Special Characters

Sometimes the XML file or the XML data that is coming from a third party may use these special characters; in this scenario, the data generates errors when you load it into an XmlDocument object or an XmlReader object.

The following error is generated when the ampersand character is encountered:
An Error occurred while parsing entity_name, line #, position #.
where line # and position # represent the exact position of the special character.

The following error occurs when a left angle bracket is encountered:
The '<' character, hexadecimal value 0x3C,cannot be included in a name. Line #, position #.
In this error message, the line # and position # do not indicate the position where the left angle bracket exists, but where the second left angle bracket is encountered.

If the XML file contains a right angle bracket (>), a straight quotation mark (") or an apostrophe ('), these are handled by the XmlReader and the XmlDocument objects because only single character replacement is required for these characters.

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Replace the Special Characters

To replace the ampersand and the left angle bracket characters:
  1. Create the XML file.
  2. Create the Visual Basic .NET application, and then insert the code.
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Create the XML File

Copy and paste the following code into Notepad, and then save the file as customers.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?><Customers><Customer><CustomerID>BLAUS</CustomerID><CompanyName>Blauer See Delikatessen</CompanyName><ContactName>Hanna Moos</ContactName><Region>test<ing</Region></Customer><Customer><CustomerID>SPLIR</CustomerID><CompanyName>Split Rail Beer & Ale</CompanyName><ContactName>Art raunschweiger</ContactName><Region>WY</Region></Customer></Customers>				
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Create Visual Basic .NET Project

  1. Create a new Visual Basic .NET Windows application.
  2. Use a drag-and-drop operation to move a TextBox, two Button controls, and a DataGrid.
  3. Set the Multiline property of the TextBox to True.
  4. Import the following namespaces:
    Imports System.XmlImports System.IOImports System.Data.SqlClient					
  5. After the following section
    Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
    copy and paste the following code sample:
     Dim filepath As String = "C:\customers.xml"Private Sub ReplaceSpecialChars(ByVal linenumber As Long)        Dim strm As StreamReader        Dim strline As String        Dim strreplace As String        Dim tempfile As String = "C:\temp.xml"        Try            FileCopy(filepath, tempfile)        Catch ex As Exception            MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)        End Try        Dim strmwriter As New StreamWriter(filepath)        strmwriter.AutoFlush = True        strm = New StreamReader(tempfile)        Dim i As Long = 0        While i < linenumber - 1            strline = strm.ReadLine            strmwriter.WriteLine(strline)            i = i + 1        End While        strline = strm.ReadLine        Dim lineposition As Int32        lineposition = InStr(strline, "&")        If lineposition > 0 Then            strreplace = "&amp;"        Else            lineposition = InStr(2, strline, "<")            If lineposition > 0 Then                strreplace = "<"            End If        End If        strline = Mid(strline, 1, lineposition - 1) + strreplace + Mid(strline, lineposition + 1)        strmwriter.WriteLine(strline)        strline = strm.ReadToEnd        strmwriter.WriteLine(strline)        strm.Close()        strm = Nothing        strmwriter.Flush()        strmwriter.Close()        strmwriter = Nothing    End Sub    Public Function LoadXMLDoc() As XmlDocument        Dim xdoc As XmlDocument        Dim lnum As Long        Dim pos As Long        Dim Newxml As String        Try            xdoc = New XmlDocument()            xdoc.Load(filepath)        Catch ex As XmlException            MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)            lnum = ex.LineNumber            ReplaceSpecialChars(lnum)            xdoc = LoadXMLDoc()        End Try        Return (xdoc)    End Function					
  6. Copy and paste the following code into the Click event of Button1:
    Dim xmldoc As New XmlDocument()        xmldoc = LoadXMLDoc()        Dim nextnode As XmlNode        nextnode = xmldoc.FirstChild.NextSibling        TextBox1.Text = nextnode.OuterXml					
  7. Copy and paste the following code into the Click event of Button2:
    Dim ds As New DataSet()        Dim xdoc As New XmlDocument()        Dim cnNwind As New SqlConnection("Data source=myservername;user id=myuser;Password=mypassword;Initial catalog=Northwind;")        Dim daCustomers As New SqlDataAdapter("Select customerid,companyname,contactname, region from customers where region='WY'", cnNwind)        Dim filepath As String        Try            daCustomers.Fill(ds, "Customers")            DataGrid1.DataSource = ds.Tables(0)            ds.WriteXml("C:\Dataset.xml")            xdoc.Load("C:\Dataset.xml")            Dim nextnode As XmlNode            nextnode = xdoc.FirstChild.NextSibling            TextBox1.Text = nextnode.OuterXml.ToString        Catch ex As Exception            MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)        End Try					
  8. Change the server name, the user name, and the password to connect to your server that is running Microsoft SQL Server.
  9. Build the project, and then run it.
  10. Click Button1.

    The errors that you receive are consistent with the description of the errors that are explained in the "Required: An XML File with Special Characters" section. The XML data is then displayed in the TextBox; the ampersand is replaced with
  11. Click Button2.

    In the DataGrid, companyname has an ampersand and the TextBox shows the XML data with
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251354 HOW TO: Locate and Replace Special Characters in an XML Document with Visual Basic
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Article ID: 308060 - Last Review: 09/03/2003 22:32:49 - Revision: 3.2

  • Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003 Standard Edition
  • Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2002 Standard Edition
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0
  • kbgrpdsmsxml kbhowtomaster kbmsxml KB308060