Replaces invalid XML characters in a string with their valid XML equivalent

Sometimes when creating XML documents with user specific data, string values of the XML nodes have to be encoded to maintain the structure of the XML nodes. Following table shows invalid XML characters and their escaped equivalent.

Invalid XML Character	Escaped equivalent
“<”	"<"
“>”	">"
“\””	"""
“\’”	"'"
“&”	“&"

There is a build-in method in .NET to achieve this called SecurityElement.Escape under the system. Security namespace.  This method accept string parameter and returns a string with invalid characters replaced.

e.g :-

      string xml = "\"node\"&"; 

      string encodedXml = System.Security.SecurityElement.Escape(xml);

      //RESULT: <node>"node"&<node>