XML format for special characters

Question

1. What are the special characters that will break an XML?

For example, the following xml works if there is no special characters in the value. But fails when I have & sign. I tried to wrap the value with CDATA syntax ( <![CDATA[CITY & COUNTY]]> ) but getting "Unexpected end of file while parsing CDATA has occurred. Line 44, position 122"

<Method ID="5">         
    <Field Type="Text" Name="Company" DisplayName="Company Name" FromBaseType="TRUE" >
        <Default>Rob & Schnider Company</Default>
    </Field> 
</Method>

Additional Info (if needed): I am using SharePoint 2010 and it's web services to set default values for certain columns in a document library.

Answer 1

Actually, since I am using Nintex for workflow there is function which takes care of the special characters. All you do is wrap the value with the the function.

fn-XmlEncode

Encodes a string to make it safe for viewing in html.

Example

fn-XmlEncode({WorkflowVariable:Text})

Answer 2

There aren't very many. there are like 5 characters that you have to escape in your xml.

&   &   Ampersand sign
'   '  Single quote
"   "  Double quote
>   >    Greater than
<   &lt;    Less than

just change your & to a & , and it should work.

if you're parsing this with ac# XML library, it should know what to do with the escape sequences.

http://www.rtslink.com/introductionxmlsoap.html