Encode String for XML attribute

In this chapter you will learn:

Encode Xml Attribute

Encode Xml Attribute

We have to escape certain characters for attribute value. For example, cannot use < directly in attribute, we have to use <. The following code encodes string for attribute.

public class Main {
  public static String encodeXmlAttribute(String str) {
      if (str == null)
          return null;
/*from   j  a v  a  2s  .c o m*/
      int len = str.length();
      if (len == 0)
          return str;

      StringBuffer encoded = new StringBuffer();
      for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
          char c = str.charAt(i);
          if (c == '<')
              encoded.append("&lt;");
          else if (c == '\"')
              encoded.append("&quot;");
          else if (c == '>')
              encoded.append("&gt;");
          else if (c == '\'')
              encoded.append("&apos;");
          else if (c == '&')
              encoded.append("&amp;");
          else
              encoded.append(c);
      }
      return encoded.toString();
  }
}