Creating xml and converting special characters

Question

I am trying to creating an xml representation of some data. I have created various methods for creating the various parts of the structure.
But is there an easy way to transform invalid xml characters to the xml representations (such as converting to a particular charset) e.g & -> amp;
public class XMLTagDisplayFormatter extends AbstractTagDisplayFormatter
    private static XMLTagDisplayFormatter formatter;
    protected static final String xmlOpenStart = "<";
    protected static final String xmlOpenEnd = ">";
    protected static final String xmlCloseStart = "</";
    protected static final String xmlCloseEnd = ">";
    protected static final String xmlSingleTagClose = " />";
    protected static final String xmlSingleDataTagClose = "]] />";
    /** Return xml open tag round a string e.g <tag> */
    public static String xmlOpen(String xmlName)
        return xmlOpenStart + xmlName + xmlOpenEnd;
    public static String xmlOpenHeading(String name,String data)
        return(xmlOpen(name+" id=\""+data+"\""));
    /** Return xml close tag around a string e.g </tag> */
    public static String xmlClose(String xmlName)
        return xmlCloseStart + xmlName + xmlCloseEnd;
    public static String xmlSingleTag(String data)
       return xmlOpenStart + data + xmlSingleTagClose;
   public static String xmlFullTag(String xmlName,String data)
       return     xmlOpen(xmlName)
               +  data
               +  xmlClose(xmlName);
    StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
    public void   openHeadingElement(String type,String value)
         if(value.equals(""))
             sb.append(xmlOpen(type));
         else
             sb.append(xmlOpenHeading(type,replaceXMLCharacters(value)));
    public void   openHeadingElement(String type,boolean value)
      openHeadingElement(type,String.valueOf(value));
   public void   openHeadingElement(String type,int value)
        openHeadingElement(type,String.valueOf(value));
    public void   closeHeadingElement(String type)
        sb.append(xmlClose(type));
    public void addElement(String type, String value)
        sb.append(xmlFullTag(type,replaceXMLCharacters(value)));
    public void addElement(String type, int value)
        addElement(type,String.valueOf(value));
    public void addElement(String type, boolean value)
        addElement(type,String.valueOf(value));
    public String toString()
        return sb.toString();
    public AbstractTagDisplayFormatter getInstanceOf()
        if (formatter == null)
            formatter = new XMLTagDisplayFormatter();
        return formatter;
}

Answer 1

Thanks,
Ive written this method which seems to work for me although Im only using it for debugging.
public static String xmlCData(String xmlData)
        char tempChar;
        StringBuffer replacedString = new StringBuffer();
        for(int i=0;i<xmlData.length();i++)
           tempChar = xmlData.charAt(i);
           if(
               (Character.isLetterOrDigit(tempChar)==true)
               ||
               (Character.isSpaceChar(tempChar)==true)
               replacedString.append(tempChar);
           else
               replacedString.append("#x"+Character.digit(tempChar,16));
         return xmlCDataTagOpen + replacedString + xmlCDataTagClose;
    }