What is the SYNTAX for the user and group filters??? Is the HTML Ampersand token Amper A m p semicolon required in the filter

There seems to be quite a bit of confusion over the actual syntax for the user and group filters on the Forms Based Authentication  Ldap Role and membership providers.. MSFT isn't really clear and there is a universal confusion in the blogsphere. I the filters should the prefix be the ACTUAL Ampersand or the HTML token for an AMPERSAND.. I realize the in many cases the blogger might have inadvertently specified the html token when the bare naked ampersand was intended..   The question therefore is : can a filter be taken directly from and ADSIEdit query and used as a filter or must the filter be made HTML safe by swapping out the AMERSAND with the HTML Token for AMERSAND before putting it into the configuration for the LDAPRole/membership provider...

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