XML escape tool
Paste the text you want to place in an XML file and choose all five characters or only the three needed in text.
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Processing and privacy: The result is calculated inside your browser and your data is not sent to any server.
How to use it
- Enter text and what to escape.
- The result appears straight away and updates as you edit.
- Copy the result, or copy a link that keeps the same values to share it.
How it is calculated
Each character is replaced by its standard entity: & to &, < to <, > to >, " to " and ' to '. The replacement runs in one pass character by character, so nothing is escaped twice within a run.
Example
Inputs: What to escape = All five (attributes and text). Result: Escaped text: شركة "النخبة" & أبناؤه <فرع جدة>; Characters replaced: 5.
شركة "النخبة" & أبناؤه <فرع جدة>
شركة "النخبة" & أبناؤه <فرع جدة>
Limits and caveats
- Text that is already escaped gets escaped again, so & becomes &amp;.
- Characters not allowed in XML 1.0, such as control codes, are not converted, remove them first.
Questions about this tool
When do I need to escape " and '?
When the text goes inside a quoted attribute value. Element text only needs & and <, with > added for safety.
Do Arabic letters need escaping?
No, Arabic letters are allowed directly in UTF-8 XML. Only the five special characters need entities.
How is this different from CDATA?
A CDATA section keeps text raw without escaping, but it cannot be used in attributes or hold ]]>, while escaping works everywhere.