I have been working this afternoon on trying to resolve an issue I have with XML.

I have something like this:

            Dim lcXml As String = ""
            Dim loNodeType As XmlNodeType = Nothing

            ' Get all child nodes
            For Each oXmlNode In toChildNodes
                loNodeType = oXmlNode.NodeType

                ' If this is a value
                If loNodeType = XmlNodeType.Text Then
                    lcXml = oXmlNode.InnerText
                    lcXml = oApp.StrTran(lcXml, "&", "& amp;")
                    oXmlNode.InnerText = lcXml
                End If

            Next
            cXML = oXmlDocument.OuterXml

At the

lcXml = oXmlNode.InnerText

line, if I store lcXml in a file, it gives:

My company name & its affiliated

However, the real data that is in the xml is in fact:

My company name & amp; its affiliated

I just can't understand why oXmlNode.InnerText and oXmlNode.Value return a transformation of its content. This is causing me some problems.

The first one is that if I comment the line

lcXml = oApp.StrTran(lcXml, "&", "& amp;")

cXml does contain in fact:

My company name & amp; its affiliated

But, if the line is uncommented, I end up with:

My company name & its affiliated

because even if oXmlNode.InnerText and oXmlNode.Value do no expose the encoded characters, they are still present in the content. What is the proper way to achieve a proper conversion here?