# AS3 XML parsing not working when attribute has a : in the attribute name

**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/as3-xml-parsing-not-working-when-attribute-has-a-in-the-attribute-name/288229
**Category:** flash
**Created:** [May 13, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/as3-xml-parsing-not-working-when-attribute-has-a-in-the-attribute-name/288229 "2009-05-13T04:16:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![kingsford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecae2f/32.png) [@kingsford](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/kingsford)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/as3-xml-parsing-not-working-when-attribute-has-a-in-the-attribute-name/288229/1 "2009-05-13T04:16:29Z")

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Hi All,

I am having trouble parsing some xml that has a few attribute names with : characters in them. The compiler is not throwing any errors and when I trace my complete xml object out it is all there, however when I try to trace out any element or node it keeps comming up undefined. I removed the attribute names with : characters in them and everything works fine. I cant seem to target the attributes either to delete them.

Is there a way to either ignore the : characters in the attribute names or strip them out or another way to get around them being there ?

Thanks in advance

J