Invalid XML character

[Mathew Kuruvilla]

I am inserting an XML file into a database and then I am retrieving it later for display on a browser.
The problem is this:
When I retrieve the document from the database, I find that it has invalid XML characters in it.
Is there any way of ensuring that I remove the invalid character before I regenerate the XML document for display?
Thanks.
Mathew

[Zoe Peng]

Did you encode or escape those when you store in your database?
I think you should do it first.
--Zoe

[William Brogden]

Have you identified the source of the characters? I recall one person had a problem with illegal characters that turned out to be 0x1A - the eof control code. If the XML is being processed by Word you might be getting those obnoxious "smart" quotes, etc.....
Bill