Returns the string where all non-ascii and <, &, > are encoded as numeric entities for XML - Java XML

Java examples for XML:XML Entity

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Description

Returns the string where all non-ascii and <, &, > are encoded as numeric entities for XML

Demo Code


//package com.java2s;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] argv) throws Exception {
        String originalUnprotectedString = "java2s.com";
        System.out//  www .jav  a2 s .c o m
                .println(protectSpecialCharacters(originalUnprotectedString));
    }

    /**
     * Returns the string where all non-ascii and <, &, > are encoded as numeric entities. I.e. "&lt;A &amp; B &gt;"
     * .... (insert result here). The result is safe to include anywhere in a text field in an XML-string. If there was
     * no characters to protect, the original string is returned.
     * 
     * @param originalUnprotectedString
     *            original string which may contain characters either reserved in XML or with different representation
     *            in different encodings (like 8859-1 and UFT-8)
     * @return
     */
    public static String protectSpecialCharacters(
            String originalUnprotectedString) {
        if (originalUnprotectedString == null) {
            return null;
        }
        boolean anyCharactersProtected = false;

        StringBuffer stringBuffer = new StringBuffer();
        for (int i = 0; i < originalUnprotectedString.length(); i++) {
            char ch = originalUnprotectedString.charAt(i);

            boolean controlCharacter = ch < 32;
            boolean unicodeButNotAscii = ch > 126;
            boolean characterWithSpecialMeaningInXML = ch == '<'
                    || ch == '&' || ch == '>' || ch == '"';

            if (characterWithSpecialMeaningInXML || unicodeButNotAscii
                    || controlCharacter) {
                stringBuffer.append("&#" + (int) ch + ";");
                anyCharactersProtected = true;
            } else {
                stringBuffer.append(ch);
            }
        }
        if (anyCharactersProtected == false) {
            return originalUnprotectedString;
        }

        return stringBuffer.toString();
    }
}

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