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javaxmlxml-parsingstax

XMLStreamException because of & in xml

I want to parse an xml file to a java object.

I use XMLInputFactory library for doing this.

XMLInputFactory inputFactory = XMLInputFactory.newInstance();
InputStream in = new FileInputStream(filepath);
eventReader = inputFactory.createXMLEventReader(in);

What can I do if I have an '&' in my text e.g.: <example>I like programming & football</example>

I always get an error message:

javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamException: ParseError at [row,col]:[3608,52] Message: The entity name must immediately follow the '&' in the entity reference. at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLStreamReaderImpl.next(Unknown Source)

I know why the error is happening. The parser wants to look for &amp, &.., ... But I don't know how to escape the error.

Thanks.

Solution

  • The appearance of an unescaped (as &amp;) ampersand in an XML file violates the basic rule of how XML files have to be written. (&lt; and &gt; are other obvious examples.)

    Any XML producer should make sure to adhere to the W3C spec for XML.

    If you have to patch a badly written file and if & is not used for introducing HTML entities at all you might try a patch via sed or some similar utility.