JDOM attribute converts tab characters to a space separator

Question

I am using a well-formed xml file to parse delimited data. I am passing a tab character as an attribute to an element called delimiter. When the text values from my elements are read in, the tab character is properly read. The tab character that is stored in the delimiter attribute is read in as a space separator rather than a tab. Is this a bug or should I be parsing the attribute differntly? Below is my sample code and xml stream:
public static void main(String args[]) {
try{
File file = new File("c:\\output.xml");
Element rootElement = getRootElement(new FileReader(file));
System.out.println("Element text is tab: " + rootElement.getText().equals("\t"));
System.out.println("Attribute text is tab: " + rootElement.getAttributeValue("delimiter").equals("\t"));
System.out.println("Attribute type: " + Character.getType(rootElement.getAttributeValue("delimiter").charAt(0)));
//returns type 12 (space separator)
}catch (Exception e) {}
public static Element getRootElement(Reader reader) throws JDOMException, FileNotFoundException{
Element rootElement = null;
SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder();
try {
// Generate JDom Document
org.jdom.Document jdomDoc = builder.build(reader);
rootElement = jdomDoc.getRootElement();
}catch (JDOMException e) { throw new JDOMException(e.getMessage()); } // indicates a well-formedness or validity error
return rootElement;
Below is the xml data that I used to emulate this test:
<DELIM_TEST delimiter="     ">     </DELIM_TEST>
NOTE: replace the delimiter and text values with a tab character if the html post converts them to a space.

Answer 1

I don't think it's a bug, I think it's a feature. Have a look at the XML specs, which are here:
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml#sec-white-space
and see if section 2.10, White Space Handling, describes what you are describing. I found it rather obscure. Also, Michael Kay's book on XSLT has about six pages devoted to white space handling, and at one point it says
"The XML parser will normalize attribute values. A tab or newline will always be replaced by a single space, unless it is written as a character reference..."