XML Unleashed

Working with Entities

As you know, entities are storage containers used to hold data, and they're the physical building blocks from which XML documents are constructed. Every XML document has at least one entity that serves as the base entity for the entire document. Not surprisingly, this entity is known as the document entity. When processing an XML document, an XML processor begins with the document entity because it forms the root of the document hierarchy.

Note

XML uses the term entity in a very broad sense, so the idea of an entity being a physical piece of information can be misleading. Although it is generally accurate to refer to an entity as a physical unit of storage, this storage can manifest itself in some seemingly strange ways. ...