Read UTF-8 hex codes in xml using JavaScript

Question

I have a xml file which has an En Dash and Em Dash characters in it as part of element text. They are getting converted to UTF-8 codes as following.

<TextValue>This is an En Dash:  \xE2\x80\x93    This is an Em Dash: \xE2\x80\x94.</TextValue>

I would like to address those UTF-8 hex codes using JavaScript and replace them with any free text I want.

Could anyone suggest approaches to do it? I tried to use RegEx but was unable to parse those codes. I could address any other text using RegEx though.

Thank you.

Are you in control of the XML? Because I didn't think the \xE2 notation was a good XML thing. The proper XML encoding for these chars (if not raw bytes) would be – and — respectively. But if you're stuck with that XML I guess you'll need some custom parsing/decoding. — Sodved
– Sodved, Commented Aug 17, 2012 at 5:06
I am not in control of that xml. I am receiving it from upstream system. So I need to accept it as is and manipulate myself. — Chaitanya MSV
– Chaitanya MSV, Commented Aug 17, 2012 at 5:07

mplungjan · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-17 05:37:05Z

1

DEMO

var text = "<TextValue>This is an En Dash:  \xE2\x80\x93    This is an Em Dash: \xE2\x80\x94.</TextValue>"

var fromArr = ["\xe2\x80\x98", "\xe2\x80\x99", "\xe2\x80\x9c", "\xe2\x80\x9d", "\xe2\x80\x93", "\xe2\x80\x94", "\xe2\x80\xa6"],
    toArr = ["'", "'", '"', '"', '-', '--', '...'];

    for (var i=0;i<fromArr.length;i++) {
        text = text.replace(fromArr[i],toArr[i],"g")
    }
        alert(text)

Change to

 var fromArr = ["\xe2\x80\x93", "\xe2\x80\x94"], toArr = [ '-', '--'];

if you do not need the smartquotes and ellipsis

Result:

enter image description here

edited Aug 17, 2012 at 5:37

answered Aug 17, 2012 at 5:21

mplungjan

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5 Comments

Chaitanya MSV Over a year ago

I am seeing this:<TextValue>This is an En Dash: ? This is an Em Dash: ?.</TextValue>

Chaitanya MSV Over a year ago

Also could you please explain why you have so many array entries just to replace two tokens?

mplungjan Over a year ago

Just remove the ones you do not need. I found a list of tokens likely to appear in your code

Chaitanya MSV Over a year ago

Yeah, it works in Fiddle. It seems the tool I am using is meddling with standard behavior. This time it is not even replacing.

Chaitanya MSV Over a year ago

Even this is working in Fiddle: var text = "<TextValue>This is an En Dash: \xE2\x80\x93 This is an Em Dash: \xE2\x80\x94.</TextValue>" text = text.replace("\xE2\x80\x93","-","g") text = text.replace("\xE2\x80\x94","--","g") alert(text)

Chaitanya MSV · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-23 20:53:22Z

0

I finally got away by reading body of the message in UTF-8 and use following lines to replace unicodes.

body = body.replace(/\u00E1/g,"a");  //LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH ACUTE
body = body.replace(/\u00E2/g,"a");  //LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX
body = body.replace(/\u00E3/g,"a");  //LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH TILDE
body = body.replace(/\u201D/g,"\"");  //RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
body = body.replace(/\u201C/g,"\"");  //LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
body = body.replace(/\u2424/g," ");  //NEW LINE \n
body = body.replace(/\u000D/g," ");  //CARRIAGE RETURN \r

answered Aug 23, 2012 at 20:53

Chaitanya MSV

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