Regular Expression to replace & in XML

denzil_cactus has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks,

I have a XML file which has the content as below

<Marks>BALANCE OF AMOUNT RECEIVED FROM H&#</Marks>
[download]

and I am trying to use a code to convert &# into blank
as per below however in this case character & should be untouched

<Marks>BALANCE OF AMOUNT RECEIVED FROM H</Marks>
[download]

Below is the code.
sed -e 's/&//'
Please help here

Comment on Regular Expression to replace & in XML Select or Download Code

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Re: Regular Expression to replace & in XML by FreeBeerReekingMonk (Deacon) on Nov 18, 2016 at 21:42 UTC
This would update the files (it OVERWRITES them, so be careful) `perl -pi -e 's/&#(?!\d+;)/ /g' myfile.xml` This would 1. Find something that has &# but not &#digit; 2. replace it with a space.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Regular Expression to replace & in XML by denzil_cactus (Sexton) on Nov 20, 2016 at 17:31 UTC
Hi there, thanks for the suggestion but this solution does not work with 'sed' command as I mentioned in my question. If the XML has the character '&#','&' etc then the XML file can not be opened and hence I am trying to use 'sed' command. Below are link for XML special character translation for reference http://xml.silmaril.ie/specials.html https://www.dvteclipse.com/documentation/svlinter/How_to_use_special_characters_in_XML.3F.html Could you please help using 'sed' command?	[reply]
Re^3: Regular Expression to replace & in XML by haukex (Archbishop) on Nov 20, 2016 at 17:46 UTC
Hi denzil_cactus, Could you please help using 'sed' command? PerlMonks is a website for Perl. You may find a few monks who speak sed too, but why is the Perl solution not acceptable for you? Update: Are you and user Chris Daniel working on the same problem? Need a regex to replace incomplete html entities Regards, -- Hauke D	[reply]
Re^4: Regular Expression to replace & in XML by denzil_cactus (Sexton) on Nov 21, 2016 at 06:08 UTC
Re: Regular Expression to replace & in XML by Discipulus (Canon) on Nov 18, 2016 at 15:38 UTC
It is easy: `#windows double quotes! perl -e "print $ARGV[0]=~s/&#//r" "<Marks>BALANCE OF AMOUNT RECEIVED F +ROM H&#</Marks>" <Marks>BALANCE OF AMOUNT RECEIVED FROM H</Marks>` [download] L* There are no rules, there are no thumbs.. Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.	[reply] [d/l]