How to skip invalid characters in XML file using PHP

Question

I\'m trying to parse an XML file using PHP, but I get an error message:

parser error : Char 0x0 out of allowed range in

I think it\'

Answer 1

Make sure your XML source is valid. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_XML_and_HTML_character_entity_references

Answer 2

Not a php solution but, it works:

Download Notepad++ https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Open your .xml file in Notepad++

From Main Menu: Search -> Search Mode set this to: Extended

Then,

Replace -> Find what \x00; Replace with {leave empty}

Then, Replace_All

Rob

Answer 3

My problem was "&" character (HEX 0x24), i changed to:

function stripInvalidXml($value)
{
    $ret = "";
    $current;
    if (empty($value)) 
    {
        return $ret;
    }

    $length = strlen($value);
    for ($i=0; $i < $length; $i++)
    {
        $current = ord($value{$i});
        if (($current == 0x9) ||
            ($current == 0xA) ||
            ($current == 0xD) ||

            (($current >= 0x28) && ($current <= 0xD7FF)) ||
            (($current >= 0xE000) && ($current <= 0xFFFD)) ||
            (($current >= 0x10000) && ($current <= 0x10FFFF)))
        {
            $ret .= chr($current);
        }
        else
        {
            $ret .= " ";
        }
    }
    return $ret;
}

Answer 4

Do you have control over the XML? If so, ensure the data is enclosed in <![CDATA[ .. ]]> blocks.

And you also need to clear the invalid characters:

/**
 * Removes invalid XML
 *
 * @access public
 * @param string $value
 * @return string
 */
function stripInvalidXml($value)
{
    $ret = "";
    $current;
    if (empty($value)) 
    {
        return $ret;
    }

    $length = strlen($value);
    for ($i=0; $i < $length; $i++)
    {
        $current = ord($value{$i});
        if (($current == 0x9) ||
            ($current == 0xA) ||
            ($current == 0xD) ||
            (($current >= 0x20) && ($current <= 0xD7FF)) ||
            (($current >= 0xE000) && ($current <= 0xFFFD)) ||
            (($current >= 0x10000) && ($current <= 0x10FFFF)))
        {
            $ret .= chr($current);
        }
        else
        {
            $ret .= " ";
        }
    }
    return $ret;
}

Answer 5

I decided to test all UTF-8 values (0-1114111) to make sure things work as they should. Using preg_replace() causes a NULL to be returned due to errors when testing all utf-8 values. This is the solution I've come up.

$utf_8_range = range(0, 1114111);
$output = ords_to_utfstring($utf_8_range);
$sanitized = sanitize_for_xml($output);


/**
 * Removes invalid XML
 *
 * @access public
 * @param string $value
 * @return string
 */
function sanitize_for_xml($input) {
  // Convert input to UTF-8.
  $old_setting = ini_set('mbstring.substitute_character', '"none"');
  $input = mb_convert_encoding($input, 'UTF-8', 'auto');
  ini_set('mbstring.substitute_character', $old_setting);

  // Use fast preg_replace. If failure, use slower chr => int => chr conversion.
  $output = preg_replace('/[^\x{0009}\x{000a}\x{000d}\x{0020}-\x{D7FF}\x{E000}-\x{FFFD}]+/u', '', $input);
  if (is_null($output)) {
    // Convert to ints.
    // Convert ints back into a string.
    $output = ords_to_utfstring(utfstring_to_ords($input), TRUE);
  }
  return $output;
}

/**
 * Given a UTF-8 string, output an array of ordinal values.
 *
 * @param string $input
 *   UTF-8 string.
 * @param string $encoding
 *   Defaults to UTF-8.
 *
 * @return array
 *   Array of ordinal values representing the input string.
 */
function utfstring_to_ords($input, $encoding = 'UTF-8'){
  // Turn a string of unicode characters into UCS-4BE, which is a Unicode
  // encoding that stores each character as a 4 byte integer. This accounts for
  // the "UCS-4"; the "BE" prefix indicates that the integers are stored in
  // big-endian order. The reason for this encoding is that each character is a
  // fixed size, making iterating over the string simpler.
  $input = mb_convert_encoding($input, "UCS-4BE", $encoding);

  // Visit each unicode character.
  $ords = array();
  for ($i = 0; $i < mb_strlen($input, "UCS-4BE"); $i++) {
    // Now we have 4 bytes. Find their total numeric value.
    $s2 = mb_substr($input, $i, 1, "UCS-4BE");
    $val = unpack("N", $s2);
    $ords[] = $val[1];
  }
  return $ords;
}

/**
 * Given an array of ints representing Unicode chars, outputs a UTF-8 string.
 *
 * @param array $ords
 *   Array of integers representing Unicode characters.
 * @param bool $scrub_XML
 *   Set to TRUE to remove non valid XML characters.
 *
 * @return string
 *   UTF-8 String.
 */
function ords_to_utfstring($ords, $scrub_XML = FALSE) {
  $output = '';
  foreach ($ords as $ord) {
    // 0: Negative numbers.
    // 55296 - 57343: Surrogate Range.
    // 65279: BOM (byte order mark).
    // 1114111: Out of range.
    if (   $ord < 0
        || ($ord >= 0xD800 && $ord <= 0xDFFF)
        || $ord == 0xFEFF
        || $ord > 0x10ffff) {
      // Skip non valid UTF-8 values.
      continue;
    }
    // 9: Anything Below 9.
    // 11: Vertical Tab.
    // 12: Form Feed.
    // 14-31: Unprintable control codes.
    // 65534, 65535: Unicode noncharacters.
    elseif ($scrub_XML && (
               $ord < 0x9
            || $ord == 0xB
            || $ord == 0xC
            || ($ord > 0xD && $ord < 0x20)
            || $ord == 0xFFFE
            || $ord == 0xFFFF
            )) {
      // Skip non valid XML values.
      continue;
    }
    // 127: 1 Byte char.
    elseif ( $ord <= 0x007f) {
      $output .= chr($ord);
      continue;
    }
    // 2047: 2 Byte char.
    elseif ($ord <= 0x07ff) {
      $output .= chr(0xc0 | ($ord >> 6));
      $output .= chr(0x80 | ($ord & 0x003f));
      continue;
    }
    // 65535: 3 Byte char.
    elseif ($ord <= 0xffff) {
      $output .= chr(0xe0 | ($ord >> 12));
      $output .= chr(0x80 | (($ord >> 6) & 0x003f));
      $output .= chr(0x80 | ($ord & 0x003f));
      continue;
    }
    // 1114111: 4 Byte char.
    elseif ($ord <= 0x10ffff) {
      $output .= chr(0xf0 | ($ord >> 18));
      $output .= chr(0x80 | (($ord >> 12) & 0x3f));
      $output .= chr(0x80 | (($ord >> 6) & 0x3f));
      $output .= chr(0x80 | ($ord & 0x3f));
      continue;
    }
  }
  return $output;
}

And to do this on a simple object or array

// Recursive sanitize_for_xml.
function recursive_sanitize_for_xml(&$input){
  if (is_null($input) || is_bool($input) || is_numeric($input)) {
    return;
  }
  if (!is_array($input) && !is_object($input)) {
    $input = sanitize_for_xml($input);
  }
  else {
    foreach ($input as &$value) {
      recursive_sanitize_for_xml($value);
    }
  }
}

Answer 6

If you have control over the data, ensure that it is encoded correctly (i.e. is in the encoding that you promised in the xml tag, e.g. if you have:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

then you'll need to ensure your data is in UTF-8.

If you don't have control over the data, yell at those who do.

You can use a tool like xmllint to check which part(s) of the data are not valid.