How to encode a XML String with &

Question

I have a XML string that sometimes can contain an &. This is the code (C#):

            var templateDef = String.Format("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?><template><path>{0}</path><title>{1}</title><description>{2}</description></template>", templateUrl, templateTitle, templateDescription);
            return File(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(templateDef), "application/octet-stream", templateTitle + ".hdtl");

I have read about HttpUtility.HtmlEncode, but my problem is that I can't encode the string, since it will be encode again in the last line

            return File(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(templateDef), "application/octet-stream", templateTitle + ".hdtl");

and I can't change this last line. A String.Replace("&","&") could work but is not a proper solution.

Thanks

Answer 1

Best to build XML with something geared towards XML, such as Xml.Linq

var r = new XElement("template", 
            new XElement("path", "i & am <fine> & dandy"),
            new XElement("title", "..."),
            new XElement("description", "...")).ToString();

For the correctly escaped

<template>
  <path>i &amp; am &lt;fine&gt; &amp; dandy</path>
  <title>...</title>
  <description>...</description>
</template>