re sub

_XHTML_ESCAPE_RE = re.compile('[&<>"\']')
_XHTML_ESCAPE_DICT = {'&': '&', '<': '<', '>': '>', '"': '"',
                      '\'': '''}




def xhtml_escape(value):
    """Escapes a string so it is valid within HTML or XML."""
    return _XHTML_ESCAPE_RE.sub(lambda match: _XHTML_ESCAPE_DICT[match.group(0)],
                                to_basestring(value))