# REXML and entities

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rexml-and-entities/56420>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [March 31, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rexml-and-entities/56420 "2006-03-31T02:52:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![makenai](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@makenai](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/makenai)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rexml-and-entities/56420/1 "2006-03-31T02:52:11Z")

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Hi,

I’ve been trying to use REXML to process an XML file with entities,  
but I can’t seem to get it to leave my entities alone even with the  
:raw context set. The simplified example looks something like this:

* * *

# song.xml:
\<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?\> \<!DOCTYPE Song [
## ]\> &convoy; &rubberduck;

# script.rb:

doc = Document.new File.open(‘song.xml’, ‘r’), { :raw =\> :all }

## doc.elements.each(‘Song/lyric’) do |lyric| puts lyric.raw # This prints ‘true’ puts lyric.text # This always has its entities decoded! end

# output:

## true we got a great big convoy true ain’t she a beautiful sight

# desired output:

## true &convoy; true &rubberduck;

When I take out the { :raw =\> :all } part, the entry.raw line returns  
nil, but the output isn’t changed. Am I misunderstanding how this is  
supposed to work, or is it broken? How can I get the entities back in  
an unencoded form? This is driving me crazy.

Thanks!

-Pawel