XML has a special set of characters that cannot be used in normal XML strings. These characters are:
- & - &
- < - <
- > - >
- " - "
- ' - '
For example, the following XML string is invalid:
<Organization>IBM & Microsoft</Organization>
Whereas the following is valid XML:
<Organization>IBM & Microsoft</Organization>
—Note that we have replaced '&' with '&' in the second XML string which makes it valid.