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Fix "EntityRef: expecting ';'" parsing error in XML

Solve XML parsing crashes caused by unescaped ampersands or invalid entity references.

The Problem (Error Root Cause)Exception

Your XML parser crashes with `EntityRef: expecting ';'`. This happens when you have an unescaped ampersand `&` in your XML data, confusing the parser into thinking it's an HTML entity like `&`.

Identified via runtime validation & stack traces

The Solution (Step-by-Step Fix)Verified

Replace all raw `&` characters in text nodes or attributes with `&`, or wrap the text data in a `<![CDATA[ ... ]]>` block.

Deterministic, non-destructive resolution

Code Standard: Bad Pattern vs Verified Fix

Live Syntax

Anti-Pattern vs Verified Fix

1<!-- ❌ Bad: Unescaped ampersand -->
2<company>Smith & Sons</company>
3 
4<!-- ✅ Good: Escaped entity -->
5<company>Smith &amp; Sons</company>

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q:What is CDATA?

CDATA sections tell the XML parser to treat the content as raw text and ignore special characters like < and &.

Q:How do I format complex XML?

Use our XML Formatter to indent and validate your documents.