Appendix D XML 1 spec

[Richard Tobin]

> <!ENTITY example "<p>An ampersand (&#38;#38;) may be escaped
> numerically (&#38;#38;#38;) or with a general entity
> (&amp;amp;).</p>" >

When the entity declaration is parsed, character entities are expanded
but general entities (including &amp;) are not.  (The table in section
4.4 is first place you should look in questions of this kind.)

So (as described in appendix D) the entity's value is

 ... (&#38;) ... (&#38;#38;) ... (&amp;amp;) ...

When this is expanded in the instance, both character and general
entities are expanded (again, as specified in the table), producing

 ... (&) ... (&38;) ... (&amp;) ...

in the text passed to the application.

-- Richard

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