xml generate error

In COBOL, I am generating an XML from a COBOL copybook by the use of
the 'XML GENERATE' statement. I find the following problem when I use
special characters.
When I have a special character say, & in a field in the second
potition, the XML generated looks fine and has covnerted & to the
correct escape sequence in the output XML. But when I have the '&' as
the first character of a field, the XML generated is junk.
Anyone any ideas how I could solve this. This is a critical issue in my
Project and any comments would be really helpful.

Did you see/read

[url]http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/igy3lr30/6.2.41.2.1[/ur
l]

"Any remaining instances of the five characters & (ampersand), ' (apostrophe
), >
(greater-than sign), < (less-than sign), and " (quotation mark) are converte
d
into the equivalent XML references '&', ''', '&gt;', '&lt;', and
'"', respectively. "

If you are using IBM Enterprise COBOL V3.4 and the compiler is NOT working t
his
way, then you should report it to IBM support.  (You don't tell us what comp
iler
you are using, so this was just a GUESS given the references to XML and
GENERATE)

--
Bill Klein
wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com
"shabi" <shabinaz@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1139992211.180474.249570@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> In COBOL, I am generating an XML from a COBOL copybook by the use of
> the 'XML GENERATE' statement. I find the following problem when I use
> special characters.
> When I have a special character say, & in a field in the second
> potition, the XML generated looks fine and has covnerted & to the
> correct escape sequence in the output XML. But when I have the '&' as
> the first character of a field, the XML generated is junk.
> Anyone any ideas how I could solve this. This is a critical issue in my
> Project and any comments would be really helpful.
>