Tutorials References Exercises Videos Menu
Create Website Get Certified Upgrade

XML Tutorial

XML HOME XML Introduction XML How to use XML Tree XML Syntax XML Elements XML Attributes XML Namespaces XML Display XML HttpRequest XML Parser XML DOM XML XPath XML XSLT XML XQuery XML XLink XML Validator XML DTD XML Schema XML Server XML Examples XML Quiz XML Certificate

XML AJAX

AJAX Introduction AJAX XMLHttp AJAX Request AJAX Response AJAX XML File AJAX PHP AJAX ASP AJAX Database AJAX Applications AJAX Examples

XML DOM

DOM Introduction DOM Nodes DOM Accessing DOM Node Info DOM Node List DOM Traversing DOM Navigating DOM Get Values DOM Change Nodes DOM Remove Nodes DOM Replace Nodes DOM Create Nodes DOM Add Nodes DOM Clone Nodes DOM Examples

XPath Tutorial

XPath Introduction XPath Nodes XPath Syntax XPath Axes XPath Operators XPath Examples

XSLT Tutorial

XSLT Introduction XSL Languages XSLT Transform XSLT <template> XSLT <value-of> XSLT <for-each> XSLT <sort> XSLT <if> XSLT <choose> XSLT Apply XSLT on the Client XSLT on the Server XSLT Edit XML XSLT Examples

XQuery Tutorial

XQuery Introduction XQuery Example XQuery FLWOR XQuery HTML XQuery Terms XQuery Syntax XQuery Add XQuery Select XQuery Functions

XML DTD

DTD Introduction DTD Building Blocks DTD Elements DTD Attributes DTD Elements vs Attr DTD Entities DTD Examples

XSD Schema

XSD Introduction XSD How To XSD <schema> XSD Elements XSD Attributes XSD Restrictions XSD Complex Elements XSD Empty XSD Elements-only XSD Text-only XSD Mixed XSD Indicators XSD <any> XSD <anyAttribute> XSD Substitution XSD Example

XSD Data Types

XSD String XSD Date/Time XSD Numeric XSD Misc XSD Reference

Web Services

XML Services XML WSDL XML SOAP XML RDF XML RSS

References

DOM Node Types DOM Node DOM NodeList DOM NamedNodeMap DOM Document DOM Element DOM Attribute DOM Text DOM CDATA DOM Comment DOM XMLHttpRequest DOM Parser XSLT Elements XSLT/XPath Functions

XSD Simple Elements


XML Schemas define the elements of your XML files.

A simple element is an XML element that contains only text. It cannot contain any other elements or attributes.


What is a Simple Element?

A simple element is an XML element that can contain only text. It cannot contain any other elements or attributes.

However, the "only text" restriction is quite misleading. The text can be of many different types. It can be one of the types included in the XML Schema definition (boolean, string, date, etc.), or it can be a custom type that you can define yourself.

You can also add restrictions (facets) to a data type in order to limit its content, or you can require the data to match a specific pattern.


Defining a Simple Element

The syntax for defining a simple element is:

<xs:element name="xxx" type="yyy"/>

where xxx is the name of the element and yyy is the data type of the element.

XML Schema has a lot of built-in data types. The most common types are:

  • xs:string
  • xs:decimal
  • xs:integer
  • xs:boolean
  • xs:date
  • xs:time

Example

Here are some XML elements:

<lastname>Refsnes</lastname>
<age>36</age>
<dateborn>1970-03-27</dateborn>

And here are the corresponding simple element definitions:

<xs:element name="lastname" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="age" type="xs:integer"/>
<xs:element name="dateborn" type="xs:date"/>

Default and Fixed Values for Simple Elements

Simple elements may have a default value OR a fixed value specified.

A default value is automatically assigned to the element when no other value is specified.

In the following example the default value is "red":

<xs:element name="color" type="xs:string" default="red"/>

A fixed value is also automatically assigned to the element, and you cannot specify another value.

In the following example the fixed value is "red":

<xs:element name="color" type="xs:string" fixed="red"/>