Real World XML

Processing Instructions

As their name implies, processing instructions are instructions to the XML processor. These instructions start with <? and end with ?>. The only restriction here is that you can't use <?xml?> (or <?XML?>, which is also reserved). Processing instructions must be understood by the XML processor, so they're processor-dependant, not built into the XML recommendation.

A very common and well-understood processing instruction (although, like other processing instructions, not a part of the XML 1.0 recommendation) is <?xml-stylesheet?>, which connects a style sheet with the document. Here's an example:

<?xml version = "1.0" standalone="yes"?> 
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" href="greeting.css"?> <DOCUMENT> <GREETING> Hello From ...