diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 156ecc0..f648248 100755
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 *.rock
-test.lua
-teste.lua
 
 #IntelliJ IDEA Files
 .idea
 *.iml
 
+#VS Code files
+launch.json
+
 #macOS
 .DS_Store
+
+#Debugging files 
+debugger.lua
+test.lua
diff --git a/xml2lua.lua b/xml2lua.lua
index 813cf1e..71b98d0 100755
--- a/xml2lua.lua
+++ b/xml2lua.lua
@@ -140,6 +140,18 @@ function xml2lua.loadFile(xmlFilePath)
     error(e)
 end
 
+---Checks the value for forbidden characters and escapes them
+--@param value string for checking and correcting
+--@return a XML-compliant string
+local function escapeXmlChar(value)
+  value = string.gsub(value, "&", "&")
+  value = string.gsub(value, "<", "&lt;")
+  value = string.gsub(value, ">", "&gt;")
+  value = string.gsub(value, "'", "&apos;")
+  value = string.gsub(value, "\"", "&quot;")
+  return value
+end
+
 ---Gets an _attr element from a table that represents the attributes of an XML tag,
 --and generates a XML String representing the attibutes to be inserted
 --into the openning tag of the XML
@@ -151,7 +163,7 @@ local function attrToXml(attrTable)
   attrTable = attrTable or {}
 
   for k, v in pairs(attrTable) do
-      s = s .. " " .. k .. "=" .. '"' .. v .. '"'
+      s = s .. " " .. k .. "=" .. '"' .. escapeXmlChar(v) .. '"'
   end
   return s
 end
@@ -198,7 +210,7 @@ function xml2lua.addTagValueAttr(tagName, tagValue, attrTable, level)
   if (tagValue == '') then
     table.insert(xml2lua.xmltb, spaces .. '<' .. tagName .. attrStr .. '/>')
   else
-    table.insert(xml2lua.xmltb, spaces .. '<' .. tagName .. attrStr .. '>' .. tostring(tagValue) .. '</' .. tagName .. '>')
+    table.insert(xml2lua.xmltb, spaces .. '<' .. tagName .. attrStr .. '>' .. escapeXmlChar(tostring(tagValue)) .. '</' .. tagName .. '>')
   end
 end
 
@@ -237,7 +249,7 @@ end
 
 function xml2lua.parseTableToXml(obj, tagName, level)
   if (tagName ~= '_attr') then
-    if (type(obj) == 'table') then
+    if (type(obj) == 'table' and (#obj ~= 1 or type(obj[1]) == 'table')) then
       if (xml2lua.isChildArray(obj)) then
         for _, value in pairs(obj) do
           xml2lua.parseTableToXml(value, tagName, level)
@@ -252,10 +264,14 @@ function xml2lua.parseTableToXml(obj, tagName, level)
         xml2lua.endTag(tagName, level)
       end
     else
-      xml2lua.addTagValueAttr(tagName, obj, nil, level)
+      if type(obj) == 'table' then
+        xml2lua.addTagValueAttr(tagName, obj[1], obj._attr, level)
+      else
+        xml2lua.addTagValueAttr(tagName, obj, nil, level)
+      end
     end
   end
-    end
+end
 
 ---Converts a Lua table to a XML String representation.
 --@param tb Table to be converted to XML