XML error at ampersand (&)

php mysql html xml database

& in XML starts an entity. As you haven't defined an entity &WhateverIsAfterThat an error is thrown. You should escape it with &.

$string = str_replace('&', '&', $string);

To escape the other reserved characters:

function xmlEscape($string) {    return str_replace(array('&', '<', '>', '\'', '"'), array('&', '<', '>', '&apos;', '"'), $string);}

php mysql html xml database

You need to either turn & into its entity &, or wrap the contents in CDATA tags.

If you choose the entity route, there are additional characters you need to turn into entities:

>  ><  <'  &apos;"  "

php mysql html xml database

is the most universal way to solve all encoding errors (IMHO better that write custom functions + there is no point to solve just &).

Credit: Put Wrikken's and joshweir's comment as answer to be more visible.

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