asked on

XML Exception: Invalid Character(s)

I am working on a small project that is receiving XML data in string form from a long running application. I am trying to load this string data into an XDocument (System.Xml.Linq.XDocument), and then from there do some XML Magic and create an xlsx file for a report on the data.

On occasion, I receive the data that has invalid XML characters, and when trying to parse the string into an XDocument, I get this error.

[System.Xml.XmlException]
Message: '?', hexadecimal value 0x1C, is an invalid character.

Since I have no control over the remote application, you could expect ANY kind of character.

I am well aware that XML has a way where you can put characters in it such as &#x1C or something like that.

If at all possible I would SERIOUSLY like to keep ALL the data. If not, than let it be.

---

I have thought about editing the response string programatically, then going back and trying to re-parse should an exception be thrown, but I have tried a few methods and none of them seem successful.

Thank you for your thought.

TextReader  tr;
XDocument  doc;
string           response; //XML string received from server.
 
...
 
tr = new StringReader (response);
 
try
{
     doc = XDocument.Load(tr);
}
catch (XmlException e)
{
    //handle here?
}

Open in new window

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

ViceroyFizzlebottom

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

ViceroyFizzlebottom

The regular expression above was simply to format '&' but the general idea can be used for anything.

Meiscooldude

ASKER

Thank you for the hasty reply,

From what i can see, that will only replace an ampersand if it is in front of a hex char or something like 'gt;'

I am looking for a way to replace ALL invalid characters, such as 'G' with their corresponding &#hexvalue or simply removing it all together. (preferably keeping it)

Meiscooldude

ASKER

I used a method like this, thank you vm