XSD Empty Elements

An empty complex element cannot have contents, only attributes.

Complex Empty Elements

An empty XML element:

The "product" element above has no content at all. To define a type with no content, we must define a type that allows elements in its content, but we do not actually declare any elements, like this:

In the example above, we define a complex type with a complex content. The complexContent element signals that we intend to restrict or extend the content model of a complex type, and the restriction of integer declares one attribute but does not introduce any element content.

However, it is possible to declare the "product" element more compactly, like this:

Or you can give the complexType element a name, and let the "product" element have a type attribute that refers to the name of the complexType (if you use this method, several elements can refer to the same complex type):