Home/ Questions/Q 862881
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-15T09:12:58+00:00

I need to represent special characters like superscripts, copyright symbols etc in XML. What’s

  • 0

I need to represent special characters like superscripts, copyright symbols etc in XML. What’s the best way to do this?

I’m confused as XML defines 5 entity references for “<” , “>” etc. I always use < and > but could, or should, I use Unicode decimal, U+003C, instead? Or will an XML processor treat these the same as if I’d typed “<” and error as it’s a reserved character?

For non-reserved characters, eg the copyright symbol, is it enough to insert the Unicode (U+00A9) into the XML or should I define an entity reference in my Schema?

Thanks 😉

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I’m confused as XML defines 5 entity references for “<” , “>” etc. I always use < and > but could, or should, I use Unicode decimal, U+003C, instead? Or will an XML processor treat these the same as if I’d typed “<” and error as it’s a reserved character?

    A raw < would be an error (since it means “Start of tag”).

    For non-reserved characters, eg the copyright symbol, is it enough to insert the Unicode (U+00A9) into the XML or should I define an entity reference in my Schema?

    Using the actual character is fine (and generally preferred to using an entity as it is more readable (and takes marginally fewer bytes).

    • 0