Replace whitespaces in node names (fix broken xml)

Question

I have such broken XML:

<root>
   <Abc Dfg Xyz>data data data</Abc Dfg Xyz>
   <Kmn fsd>data data</Kmn fsd>
   <Aa bb/>
</root>    

How can I replace whitespaces with underscores in node names to fix xml format, but leave them in data using Regex.Replace?

I need such kind of a document:

<root>
   <Abc_Dfg_Xyz>data data data</Abc_Dfg_Xyz>
   <Kmn_fsd>data data</Kmn_fsd>
   <Aa_bb/>
</root>

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It isn't a good idea to parse XML with regexes unless you understand your data. I would argue that in some limited cases it can be very helpful. @HighCore, see this answer to the same question.

We're not trying to understand all possible input in the world—we're trying to make something that works in a specific case. So, if you know that your input doesn't have < or > in the data, only in the node names, you can use a regex.

In C#, use a MatchEvaluator like so:

class MyReplacer {
   public string ReplaceSpaces(Match m)
   {
        return m.Value.Replace(" ", "_");
   }

void replacingMethod() {

   ...

   Regex re = new Regex("<.*>");

   MyReplacer r = new MyReplacer();
   // Assign the replace method to the MatchEvaluator delegate.
   MatchEvaluator myEvaluator = new MatchEvaluator(r.ReplaceSpaces);

   // Replace matched characters using the delegate method.
   sInput = re.Replace(sInput, myEvaluator);
}