CDATA

Question

Hi Can any one tell me what is the use of CDATA in xml......................?

Vulpes · Answer

The Wikipedia article on CDATA also contains a good example and is worth reading as a whole: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDATA

Zoran Horvat · Answer

Here is the URL with couple of examples: http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_cdata.asp

Smart Lucky · Answer

hi can you send me an example please...?

Zoran Horvat · Answer

CDATA is a block of characters in XML document which is not parsed by the XML parser and hence you can write almost anything inside it. It ends with ]]> so you can't put that particular sequence of characters inside CDATA block. CDATA is used to transfer bulk data as part of XML document - for example base64-encoded JPEG image and similar data. In such cases XML is normally formed like having image name dimensions and other properly formatted data as elements and attributes. And once things come to actually adding the image into XML you just open CDATA block and pour the data into it. Hope this explains. Only one more addition - text contained in CDATA should not be HTML encoded since it is not treated by XML parser and consequently will not be decoded. It means that you're free to write and other characters in CDATA. You can use it to contain raw HTML or XML if you like - it will all be ignored by the parser all until ]]> is reached. Zoran

Vulpes · Answer

CDATA is character data that you want the XML parser to treat 'literally' and not with any special meaning that it might otherwise have. So you can put stuff in there such as ' ' and '&' without any problem of misinterpretation. However there's one thing you can't put in there: ]]> as this marks the end of a CDATA section.