Table of contents

Appendices

2.2 Complex Type Definitions, Element & Attribute Declarations

In XML Schema, there is a basic difference between complex types which allow elements in their content and may carry attributes, and simple types which cannot have element content and cannot carry attributes. There is also a major distinction between definitions which create new types (both simple and complex), and declarations which enable elements and attributes with specific names and types (both simple and complex) to appear in document instances. In this section, we focus on defining complex types and declaring the elements and attributes that appear within them.

ref2New complex types are defined using the complexType element and such definitions typically contain a set of element declarations, element references, and attribute declarations. The declarations are not themselves types, but rather an association between a name and the constraints which govern the appearance of that name in documents governed by the associated schema. Elements are declared using the element element, and attributes are declared using the attribute element. For example, USAddress is defined as a complex type, and within the definition of USAddress we see five element declarations and one attribute declaration:

NOTE: 

Defining the USAddress Type

<xsd:complexType name="USAddress" >
  <xsd:sequence>
    <xsd:element name="name"   type="xsd:string"/>
    <xsd:element name="street" type="xsd:string"/>
    <xsd:element name="city"   type="xsd:string"/>
    <xsd:element name="state"  type="xsd:string"/>
    <xsd:element name="zip"    type="xsd:decimal"/>
  </xsd:sequence>
  <xsd:attribute name="country" type="xsd:NMTOKEN" fixed="US"/>
</xsd:complexType>

ref3The consequence of this definition is that any element appearing in an instance whose type is declared to be USAddress (e.g. shipTo in po.xml) must consist of five elements and one attribute. These elements must be called name, street, city, state and zip as specified by the values of the declarations' name attributes, and the elements must appear in the same sequence (order) in which they are declared. The first four of these elements will each contain a string, and the fifth will contain a number. The element whose type is declared to be USAddress may appear with an attribute called country which must contain the string US.

ref4The USAddress definition contains only declarations involving the simple types: string, decimal and NMTOKEN. In contrast, the PurchaseOrderType definition contains element declarations involving complex types, e.g. USAddress, although note that both declarations use the same type attribute to identify the type, regardless of whether the type is simple or complex.

NOTE: 

Defining PurchaseOrderType

<xsd:complexType name="PurchaseOrderType">
  <xsd:sequence>
    <xsd:element name="shipTo" type="USAddress"/>
    <xsd:element name="billTo" type="USAddress"/>
    <xsd:element ref="comment" minOccurs="0"/>
    <xsd:element name="items"  type="Items"/>
  </xsd:sequence>
  <xsd:attribute name="orderDate" type="xsd:date"/>
</xsd:complexType>

In defining PurchaseOrderType, two of the element declarations, for shipTo and billTo, associate different element names with the same complex type, namely USAddress. The consequence of this definition is that any element appearing in an instance document (e.g. po.xml) whose type is declared to be PurchaseOrderType must consist of elements named shipTo and billTo, each containing the five subelements (name, street, city, state and zip) that were declared as part of USAddress. The shipTo and billTo elements may also carry the country attribute that was declared as part of USAddress.

The PurchaseOrderType definition contains an orderDate attribute declaration which, like the country attribute declaration, identifies a simple type. In fact, all attribute declarations must reference simple types because, unlike element declarations, attributes cannot contain other elements or other attributes.

ref5The element declarations we have described so far have each associated a name with an existing type definition. Sometimes it is preferable to use an existing element rather than declare a new element, for example:

NOTE: 

<xsd:element ref="comment" minOccurs="0"/>

This declaration references an existing element, comment, that was declared elsewhere in the purchase order schema. In general, the value of the ref attribute must reference a global element, i.e. one that has been declared under schema rather than as part of a complex type definition. The consequence of this declaration is that an element called comment may appear in an instance document, and its content must be consistent with that element's type, in this case, string.

Occurrence Constraints[top]

ref6The comment element is optional within PurchaseOrderType because the value of the minOccurs attribute in its declaration is 0. In general, an element is required to appear when the value of minOccurs is 1 or more. The maximum number of times an element may appear is determined by the value of a maxOccurs attribute in its declaration. This value may be a positive integer such as 41, or the term unbounded to indicate there is no maximum number of occurrences. The default value for both the minOccurs and the maxOccurs attributes is 1. Thus, when an element such as comment is declared without a maxOccurs attribute, the element may not occur more than once. Be sure that if you specify a value for only the minOccurs attribute, it is less than or equal to the default value of maxOccurs, i.e. it is 0 or 1. Similarly, if you specify a value for only the maxOccurs attribute, it must be greater than or equal to the default value of minOccurs, i.e. 1 or more. If both attributes are omitted, the element must appear exactly once.

ref36Attributes may appear once or not at all, but no other number of times, and so the syntax for specifying occurrences of attributes is different than the syntax for elements. In particular, attributes can be declared with a use attribute to indicate whether the attribute is required (see for example, the partNum attribute declaration in po.xsd), optional, or even prohibited.

Default values of both attributes and elements are declared using the default attribute, although this attribute has a slightly different consequence in each case. When an attribute is declared with a default value, the value of the attribute is whatever value appears as the attribute's value in an instance document; if the attribute does not appear in the instance document, the schema processor provides the attribute with a value equal to that of the default attribute. Note that default values for attributes only make sense if the attributes themselves are optional, and so it is an error to specify both a default value and anything other than a value of optional for use.

The schema processor treats defaulted elements slightly differently. When an element is declared with a default value, the value of the element is whatever value appears as the element's content in the instance document; if the element appears without any content, the schema processor provides the element with a value equal to that of the default attribute. However, if the element does not appear in the instance document, the schema processor does not provide the element at all. In summary, the differences between element and attribute defaults can be stated as: Default attribute values apply when attributes are missing, and default element values apply when elements are empty.

ref55 The fixed attribute is used in both attribute and element declarations to ensure that the attributes and elements are set to particular values. For example, po.xsd contains a declaration for the country attribute, which is declared with a fixed value US. This declaration means that the appearance of a country attribute in an instance document is optional (the default value of use is optional), although if the attribute does appear, its value must be US, and if the attribute does not appear, the schema processor will provide a country attribute with the value US. Note that the concepts of a fixed value and a default value are mutually exclusive, and so it is an error for a declaration to contain both fixed and default attributes.

The values of the attributes used in element and attribute declarations to constrain their occurrences are summarized in Table 1.