Skip to Content
XML Pocket Reference, Second Edition
book

XML Pocket Reference, Second Edition

by Robert Eckstein, Michel Casabianca
April 2001
Intermediate to advanced
112 pages
2h 15m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from XML Pocket Reference, Second Edition

XML Terminology

Before we move further, we need to standardize some terminology. An XML document consists of one or more elements. An element is marked with the following form:

<Body>
This is text formatted according to the Body element
</Body>.

This element consists of two tags: an opening tag, which places the name of the element between a less-than sign (<) and a greater-than sign (>), and a closing tag, which is identical except for the forward slash (/) that appears before the element name. Like HTML, the text between the opening and closing tags is considered part of the element and is processed according to the element’s rules.

Elements can have attributes applied, such as the following:

<Price currency="Euro">25.43</Price>

Here, the attribute is specified inside of the opening tag and is called currency. It is given a value of Euro, which is placed inside quotation marks. Attributes are often used to further refine or modify the default meaning of an element.

In addition to the standard elements, XML also supports empty elements. An empty element has no text between the opening and closing tags. Hence, both tags can (optionally) be combined by placing a forward slash before the closing marker. For example, these elements are identical:

<Picture src="blueball.gif"></Picture>
<Picture src="blueball.gif"/>

Empty elements are often used to add nontextual content to a document or provide additional information to the application that parses the XML. Note that while the closing slash ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

XML: Visual QuickStart Guide, Second Edition

XML: Visual QuickStart Guide, Second Edition

Kevin Howard Goldberg
XML in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

XML in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Elliotte Rusty Harold, W. Scott Means
Gaming Hacks

Gaming Hacks

Simon Carless
The Hidden Cost of AI-Assisted Creativity

The Hidden Cost of AI-Assisted Creativity

Léonard Boussioux, Anil Doshi, Oliver Hauser, Kartik Hosanagar

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596001339Catalog PageErrata