Parsing problem with characters " & < > "

[SuperLes2006]

I'm trying to parse a line from a text file (.svm file) but when the text
contains the characters & or < or > the text doesn't get parsed.
It works fine if the text doesn't contain those 3 characters however.
Whats the problem? Why won't it recognize those 3 characters?

The line to parse is
Notes=" any characters "

I made the function match everything between the quotes
and if nothing is between the quotes is will return **No Notes**

		function findnotes( notes )
		{ 
  		    var notes // if no match, use this 
  		    var notesArray = notes.match(/".+"/gi); 
  		 	    if (notesArray)
			 	{ 
  		 	 	notes = ""; 
  		 	 	    for (var i = 0; i < notesArray.length; i++)
				    { 
  		 		    notes += notesArray[i]; 
      	 		    } 
  			 	} 
				else
				{
				notes = "**No Notes**";
				}
				return notes;
		} 	
		
		function convert_SVM_to_XML( p_inp, p_t )
		{
			sXML = "";
			sXML += "<svm>";
			fso = new ActiveXObject( "Scripting.FileSystemObject" );
			try
			{
				tfRead = fso.OpenTextFile( p_inp.value, 1/*for reading*/, false );
			}
			catch(e)
			{
				alert("Hey Dumb Dumb! You need to browse for a setup!");
				return;
			}
			while ( !tfRead.AtEndOfStream )
			{
				s = tfRead.ReadLine();
				if( s == "[GENERAL]" )
				{
					s = tfRead.ReadLine();
					sXML += "<par name='Notes'>" + findnotes( s ) + "</par>";
					s = tfRead.ReadLine();

The output is xsl stylesheet:

		function showPar( pmode, pdescname, pparname, punit, ponlyDiff )
		{
			ps = "";
			if(( pmode == 1 ) || ( pmode == 2 ))
				ps+="									"+pdescname+" <a style='font-size: 12px; font-weight:bold; color:"+arrColors[pmode]+";'><xsl:value-of select='svms/svm[1]/par[@name=\""+pparname+"\"]'/></a> "+punit+"<br/>";
			else
			{
				if( ponlyDiff == 1 )
				{
					ps+="									<xsl:if test='svms/svm[1]/par[@name=\""+pparname+"\"] != svms/svm[2]/par[@name=\""+pparname+"\"]'>";
					ps+="										"+pdescname+" <a style='font-size: 12px; font-weight:bold; color:"+arrColors[1]+";'><xsl:value-of select='svms/svm[1]/par[@name=\""+pparname+"\"]'/></a> <b>/</b> <a style='font-size: 12px; font-weight:bold; color:"+arrColors[2]+";'><xsl:value-of select='svms/svm[2]/par[@name=\""+pparname+"\"]'/></a> "+punit+"<br/>";
					ps+="									</xsl:if>";
				}
				else
				{
					ps+="									<xsl:choose>";
					ps+="										<xsl:when test='svms/svm[1]/par[@name=\""+pparname+"\"] != svms/svm[2]/par[@name=\""+pparname+"\"]'>";
					ps+="											"+pdescname+" <a style='font-size: 12px; font-weight:bold; color:"+arrColors[1]+";'><xsl:value-of select='svms/svm[1]/par[@name=\""+pparname+"\"]'/></a> <b>/</b> <a style='font-size: 12px; font-weight:bold; color:"+arrColors[2]+";'><xsl:value-of select='svms/svm[2]/par[@name=\""+pparname+"\"]'/></a> "+punit+"<br/>";
					ps+="										</xsl:when>";
					ps+="										<xsl:otherwise>";
					ps+="											"+pdescname+" <a style='font-size: 12px; font-weight:normal;'><xsl:value-of select='svms/svm[1]/par[@name=\""+pparname+"\"]'/></a> <b>/</b> <a style='font-size: 12px; font-weight:normal;'><xsl:value-of select='svms/svm[2]/par[@name=\""+pparname+"\"]'/></a> "+punit+"<br/>";
					ps+="										</xsl:otherwise>";
					ps+="									</xsl:choose>";
				}
			}
			return ps;
		}
		
		
		function showFile( mode, onlyDiff )
		{
			oxml = new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLDOM');
			oxml.async = false;
			strXML1 = "";
			strXML2 = "";
			if(( mode == 1 ) || ( mode == 3 ))
			{
				strXML1 = convert_SVM_to_XML( document.all.inpFile1 );
			}
			if(( mode == 2 ) || ( mode == 3 ))
			{
				strXML2 = convert_SVM_to_XML( document.all.inpFile2 );
			}
			oxml.loadXML( "<?xml version='1.0'?><svms>" + strXML1 + strXML2 + "</svms>" );
			//alert(oxml.xml);
			var xsldom=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM");
			xsldom.async=false;
			strxsl="";
			strxsl+="<?xml version='1.0'?>";
			strxsl+="<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl='http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform' version='3.0'>";
			strxsl+="<xsl:template match='/'>";
			strxsl+="	<table border='1' width='100%' style='background-color: black' height='100%' cellpadding='1' cellspacing='1' align='center'>";
			strxsl+="		<tr>";
			strxsl+="			<td align='right'>";
			strxsl+="				<table width='240' height='100' style='background-color: gray' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' border='0'>";
			strxsl+="					<tr height='20'><td>";
			strxsl+="						<table cellpadding='2' cellspacing='1' width='100%' border='0' height='100%'>";
			strxsl+="		    				<tr>";
			strxsl+="		    					<td align='center' style='font-family: arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; color: #FFFFFF; background-color: gray;'>";
			strxsl+="		    						SETUP NOTES";
			strxsl+="		    					</td>";
			strxsl+="		    				</tr>";
			strxsl+="						</table>";
			strxsl+="					</td></tr>";
			strxsl+="					<tr><td>";
			strxsl+="						<table cellpadding='2' cellspacing='1' width='100%' height='100%' border='0'>";
			strxsl+="							<tr>";
			strxsl+="								<td valign='top' style='font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; color: black; background-color: white;'>";
			strxsl+=									showPar( mode, "", "Notes", "", onlyDiff );

[Twey]

You need to XML-encode them.

notes = notes.replace(/&/, "&amp;").replace(/</, "&lt;").replace(/>/, "&gt;");

[SuperLes2006]

Brilliant!!! That worked. Thanks
I also added /gi so it would recognize those special characters more than once.

		function findnotes( notes )
		{
  		    var notes // if no match, use this
  		    var notesArray = notes.match(/".+"/gi);
  		 	    if (notesArray)
			 	{
  		 	 	notes = "";
  		 	 	    for (var i = 0; i < notesArray.length; i++)
				    {
  		 		    notes += notesArray[i];
      	 		    }
  			 	}
				else
				{
				notes = "**No Notes**";
				}
				return notes.replace(/&/gi, "&amp;").replace(/</gi, "&lt;").replace(/>/gi, "&gt;"); notes;

Now...My only problem is that the output doesn't show more than one space at a time. For example:

Input : Notes="Just_____A__Test!"
I had to use _ for a space because this board eliminates the extra spaces too.

The output would be: "Just A Test!"

ARGH!!

[Twey]

You only need g, not i; i is for case insensitivity, which doesn't apply here. The problem with your spaces is a rendering one. HTML automatically, on encountering more than one space, renders it as just one space, to avoid whitespace being shown on the site. Try:

notes = notes.replace(/&/g, "&amp;").replace(/</g, "&lt;").replace(/>/g, "&gt;").replace(/ /g, "&nbsp;");

[SuperLes2006]

Thanks Twey! Your right, I didn't need the i for case insensitivity

This code don't work though

.replace(/ /g, " ");

but this Works like a charm!!!!

.replace(/ /g, "&#160");

Thanks for all the help

[Twey]

Really? Hm, odd. Ah well.