title: Internal name encoding in SharePoint
body: <p>It's pretty well publicised knowledge that <code>_x0020_</code> replaces spaces in SharePoint internal field names. When working with SharePoint web services this can be a bit of a nightmare until you write a replace rule when comparing field names. </p>
  
  <p>I've just found myself another one of these "encoding exceptions" in a field called SSL2. Bizarrely the internal name ends out being <code>_x0053_SL2</code>. I've tried something like RRL2 which comes out as <code>_x0052_</code>. From this it appears that the number used in the encoding represents the ASCII value of that character. Space would likewise be <code>_x0020_</code>.</p>
  
  <p><strong>My question is twofold:</strong></p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p><strong>In this case, whats causing SharePoint to encode these
  characters.</strong></p></li>
  <li><p><strong>Broadly, what sort of encoding is being done and is there a general
      step I can do to decode strings
      rather than replacing specific
      occurances which I've come across
      and know to be a problem.</strong></p></li>
  </ol>