Escape Latin Characters

Question

I need to escape latin characters in an xml doc. Example: "é" is escaped to "é". I thought I could use the ASCII function, but SELECT ASCII('é') FROM DUAL in Oracle gives me 50089.
I coded this as a quick fix, but I'm sure there's a better way.
FUNCTION escape_latin(p_str IN VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
v_str VARCHAR2(3000) := p_str;
BEGIN
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'À', 'À');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Á', 'Á');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Â', 'Â');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ã', 'Ã');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ä', 'Ä');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Å', 'Å');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Æ', 'Æ');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ç', 'Ç');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'È', 'È');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'É', 'É');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ê', 'Ê');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ë', 'Ë');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ì', 'Ì');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Í', 'Í');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Î', 'Î');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ï', 'Ï');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ð', 'Ð');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ñ', 'Ñ');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ò', 'Ò');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ó', 'Ó');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ô', 'Ô');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Õ', 'Õ');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ö', 'Ö');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, '×', '×');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ø', 'Ø');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ù', 'Ù');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ú', 'Ú');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Û', 'Û');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ü', 'Ü');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Ý', 'Ý');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'Þ', 'Þ');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ß', 'ß');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'à', 'à');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'á', 'á');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'â', 'â');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ã', 'ã');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ä', 'ä');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'å', 'å');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'æ', 'æ');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ç', 'ç');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'è', 'è');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'é', 'é');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ê', 'ê');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ë', 'ë');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ì', 'ì');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'í', 'í');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'î', 'î');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ï', 'ï');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ð', 'ð');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ñ', 'ñ');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ò', 'ò');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ó', 'ó');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ô', 'ô');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'õ', 'õ');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ö', 'ö');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, '÷', '÷');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ø', 'ø');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ù', 'ù');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ú', 'ú');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'û', 'û');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ü', 'ü');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ý', 'ý');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'þ', 'þ');
v_str := REPLACE(v_str, 'ÿ', 'ÿ');
RETURN v_str;
END escape_latin;
Is there a built in function I can use to make this cleaner and shorter?
Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

I thought about it, but it will replace not just characters with code >= 192 but characters with code >= 128 (plus \ character).Which should be absolutely ok, since otherwise you may depend on the environment:
C:\>echo %NLS_LANG%
AMERICAN_AMERICA.US7ASCII
C:\>sqlplus michael@oracle
SQL*Plus: Release 11.1.0.7.0 - Production on Thu Oct 22 20:34:54 2009
Copyright (c) 1982, 2008, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
SQL>select xmltype('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="WE8MSWIN1252" ?><e>' || chr(150) || '</e>') from dual;
XMLTYPE('<?XMLVERSION="1.0"ENCODING="WE8MSWIN1252"?><E>'||CHR(150)||'</E>')
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
<e>?</e>
SQL>exit
Disconnected from Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, Oracle Label Security, OLAP, Data Mining
and Real Application Testing options
C:\>set NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8MSWIN1252
C:\>sqlplus michael@oracle
SQL*Plus: Release 11.1.0.7.0 - Production on Thu Oct 22 20:35:17 2009
Copyright (c) 1982, 2008, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
SQL>select xmltype('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="WE8MSWIN1252" ?><e>' || chr(150) || '</e>') from dual;
XMLTYPE('<?XMLVERSION="1.0"ENCODING="WE8MSWIN1252"?><E>'||CHR(150)||'</E>')
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="WE8MSWIN1252" ?><e>û</e>
SQL>