NSXMLParser Missing Characters

Question

I am analyzing an XML file using NSXMLParser, which works great but sometimes gives me inaccurate results.

For example, I get this URL:

http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces;jsessionid=01F974DC9E276DA587AE299175EDF4F4.ctgProd02?siteId=4&#38;link=ctg_trs_home_from_ths_home_sitenav

but NSXMLParser outputs:

http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces;jsessionid=01F974DC9E276DA587AE299175EDF4F4.ctgProd02?siteId=4&link=ctg_trs_home_from_ths_home_sitenav

For some reason, it ignored the #38; part of the string - how can I get this back? Assuming this was HTML encoding I have tried stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding: but that will not work.

Any ideas?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 16 '11 at 16:13

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XML uses the same character reference encoding mechanism as HTML (although it has only 5 predefined named entities, as opposed to the huge number defined for HTML). & is an encoding for the & character.

answered May 16 '11 at 16:13

Anomie

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Yes, `&` is being retained - how do I convert it back? – Pripyat May 16 '11 at 16:16
@DavidSchieer: See [HTML entity encoding (convert '<' to '<') on iPhone in objective-c](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1666717/html-entity-encoding-convert-to-lt-on-iphone-in-objective-c) – Anomie May 16 '11 at 16:31

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:34

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Perhaps the top answer to this question might help: Objective-C: How to replace HTML entities?

It's basically a category to NSString someone made that offers both encoding and decoding of HTML entities in NSString.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:34

Community

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answered May 16 '11 at 16:35

Henri Normak

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Is there a way to stop NSXMLParser from converting it in the first place? – Pripyat May 16 '11 at 16:36
The NSXMLParserDelegate has methods for detecting internal entities and external entities, but I'm not sure whether HTML entities will fit under there http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Reference/NSXMLParserDelegate_Protocol/Reference/Reference.html%23//apple_ref/occ/intf/NSXMLParserDelegate – Henri Normak May 16 '11 at 16:37

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered May 16 '11 at 16:15

-1

You're using the ISO standard. Try either using %26 or by using url encoding.

answered May 16 '11 at 16:15

Ian

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Take a look at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1812473/difference-between-url-encode-and-html-encode/1812486#1812486 for more on HTML encoding vs. URL encoding. Also, %26 is the encoded text for the '&' when it is urlencoded. – Ian May 16 '11 at 16:23
Thank you - I was aware of this. The problem I am facing is that I cannot convert it back to the original value. – Pripyat May 16 '11 at 16:26

NSXMLParser Missing Characters

3 Answers3