Hi guys,

My issue is i have some non standard XML and i need to tidy it before it can be parsed with an XElement.Parse(text) function the problem is that the source is as follows (just a sample, the entire file contains many items)

Code:
−<item>
<id>3050</id>
<name>Change of Heart</name>
<plural_name>Changes of Heart</plural_name>
−
<image_url>
{some encoded url that i removed}
</image_url>
<color>Black</color>
<attack>10</attack>
<defense>20</defense>
<favor_points>0</favor_points>
<cost>100</cost>
<num_owned>1</num_owned>
<item_limit>0</item_limit>
<enhancements/>
−
<details>
&#37;3Cspan%20class%3D%27itemTitle%27%3E%20Change%20of%20Heart%3C%2Fspan%3E%3Cbr%3E
</details>
<category>OBJECT</category>
<sub_category>extras</sub_category>
</item>
notice the "-" now initially i tried to replace these with "" using string.replace("-", "") but the resulting string is the same.

I then looked into these dashes and found that if i url encode the string that these dashes consist of 3 chars ie (in % hexadecimal):-
%E2%88%92
i converted these to decimal and created a string of these chars as follows:-
Dim glut As String = Chr(227) & Chr(136) & Chr(146)

i then replaced any occurrence of this string in the text and again it is still there. Any ideas how i can remove these artifacts from my xml so i can parse it correctly?

The original XML is beyond my control

Here is the relevant code i have used
Code:
Option Strict On
Option Explicit On
Imports System
Imports System.Web
Imports System.Text


Public Class Form1

    Private Sub btn_populate_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btn_populate.Click
        
        Dim content As String = TextBox1.Text
        Dim glut As String = Chr(227) & Chr(136) & Chr(146)
        content = content.Replace(glut, "")
        TextBox1.Text = HttpUtility.UrlDecode(content)
    End Sub

    Private Sub btn_encode_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btn_encode.Click
        Dim content As String = TextBox1.Text
        TextBox1.Text = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(content)
    End Sub
End Class