CDATA
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The term CDATA, meaning character data, is used for distinct, but related, purposes in the markup languages SGML and XML. The term indicates that a certain portion of the document is general character data, rather than non-character data or character data with a more specific, limited structure.
~7 min read
Article
12 sectionsContents
- CDATA sections in XML
- Syntax and interpretation
- Uses of CDATA sections
- Nesting
- Issues with encoding
- Use of CDATA in program output
- CDATA in DTDs
- CDATA-type attribute value
- CDATA-type entity
- See also
- References
- External links
The term CDATA, meaning character data, is used for distinct, but related, purposes in the markup languages SGML and XML. The term indicates that a certain portion of the document is general character data, rather than non-character data or character data with a more specific, limited structure.
==CDATA sections in XML== In an XML document or external entity, a CDATA section is a piece of element content that is marked up to be interpreted literally, as textual data, not as marked-up content. A CDATA section is merely an alternative syntax for expressing character data; there is no semantic difference between character data in a CDATA section and character data in standard syntax where, for example, "<" and "&" are represented by "&lt;" and "&amp;", respectively.