xml - Cannot get xslt to output an (&) even after escaping the character

Question

I am trying to create a query string of variable assignments separated by the & symbol (ex: "var1=x&var2=y&..."). I plan to pass this string into an embedded flash file.

I am having trouble getting an & symbol to show up in XSLT. If I just type & with no tags around it, there is a problem rendering the XSLT document. If I type & with no tags around it, then the output of the document is & with no change. If I type <xsl:value-of select="&" /> or <xsl:value-of select="&amp;" /> I also get an error. Is this possible? Note: I have also tried & with no success.

Answer 1

You can combine disable-output-escaping with a CDATA section. Try this:

<xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes"><![CDATA[&]]></xsl:text>