XSD Simple Elements

XML Schemas define the elements of your XML files.

A simple element is an XML element that can contain 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 that are 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, and you can require the data to match a defined pattern.

How to Define a Simple Element

The syntax for defining a simple element is:

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

Here are some XML elements:

<lastname>Refsnes</lastname>
<age>34</age>
<dateborn>1968-03-27</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"/> 

Common XML Schema Data Types

XML Schema has a lot of built-in data types. Here is a list of the most common types:

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

Declare Default and Fixed Values for Simple Elements

Simple elements can have a default value OR a fixed value set.

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. You cannot specify another value. In the following example the fixed value is "red":

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

Jump to: Top of Page or HOME or Printer friendly page

Search W3Schools:

What Others Say About Us

Does the world know about us? Check out these places:

Dogpile Alta Vista MSN Google Excite Lycos Yahoo Ask Jeeves

We Help You For Free. You Can Help Us!

• Tell your newsgroup or mailing list
• Link to us from your pages
• Help us correct errors and broken links
• Help us with spelling and grammar
• Validate the XHTML code of this page

W3Schools is for training only. We do not warrant its correctness or its fitness for use. The risk of using it remains entirely with the user. While using this site, you agree to have read and accepted our terms of use and privacy policy.

Copyright 1999-2002 by Refsnes Data. All Rights Reserved

How we converted to XHTML