Sanitize XML Attribute Values

Question

How can i easily sanitize the values I pass into the Value property of an XAttribute.

Answer 1

Here's an extension method to clean away your trouble. /0 is not allowed in XML. I'm not sure if other chars are also disallowed, but I believe not. Probably best to start at ' '.

void Main()
{

    Console.WriteLine("123\0394".XmlSanitize());

}

public static class XmlHelpers
{
    public static string XmlSanitize(this string badString)
    {
        return new String(badString.Where(c => c >=' ').ToArray());
    }
}

Answer 2

You could try:

string value = "!@#$%^&*()123%^&*(!@#\(*!&10987"
value = System.Security.SecurityElement.Escape(value);

This will escape characters that are invalid as XML attribute values.