Free XML Escaper / Unescaper

How this tool computes its result

Maintains two hardcoded replacement maps: escape converts & → &amp;, < → &lt;, > → &gt;, " → &quot;, ' → &apos; (in that order to avoid double-escaping the ampersand), and unescape reverses the process in reverse order (&apos; → ', &quot; → ", &gt; → >, &lt; → <, &amp; → &). The tool applies these replacements via string.replace() with a regex pattern containing all entities in one pass, avoiding the "escape the escaper" problem by processing ampersand last in the unescape direction.

Worked example

Entering plain XML "<tag attr="value">Content & special</tag>" into the input and viewing the escaped output shows "<tag attr=&quot;value&quot;>Content &amp; special</tag>". Pasting that escaped output back into the input field and switching to view the unescaped output recovers the original. If the input contains already-escaped entities like "&lt;", escaping again produces "&amp;lt;" (double-escaping).

When not to use this tool

This tool only handles the five core XML entities and is not a full XML parser or validator — it does not escape newlines or control characters that are invalid in XML, does not validate that the XML structure itself is well-formed, and does not handle CDATA sections, comments, or processing instructions.

Common mistakes

• - Assuming the tool handles all HTML entities — it only covers the XML set (&amp;, &lt;, &gt;, &quot;, &apos;), not extended HTML entities like &nbsp; or &copy;.
• - Pasting unescaped angle brackets in attribute values (e.g., <tag attr=a>b>c) without quoting the attribute — the tool escapes the content but has no way to fix malformed XML structure, so the output is still malformed.
• - Double-escaping by running the tool twice on the same input — if you escape already-escaped XML, the ampersands in the entities get escaped again (&amp; becomes &amp;amp;), so always unescape first if unsure of the input state.

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