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RE: recursing root element

• From: Ronald Bourret <rbourret@i...>
• To: xml mailing list <xml-dev@i...>, "'Frank Boumphrey'" <bckman@i...>
• Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 15:05:28 +0100

Frank Boumphrey wrote:

> is
> <xdoc><xdoc>some text</xdoc></xdoc>
>
> i.e. a recursing root element, a legal XML document,
>
> >From my reading of section 2.1 it isn't but the MSXML parser lets it 
stand,
> so I'm probabably wrong.

It is well-formed and therefore legal. With a DTD of:

<!DOCTYPE xdoc [
   <!ELEMENT xdoc (#PCDATA, xdoc)*>
]>

it would also be valid.

Note that there is a difference between a root element and a root element 
type.  XML documents have both.  The root element is the outermost element 
and is discussed in section 2.1.  In this case, it is the outer <xdoc> 
element.  The root element type is the type of the root element and is 
declared in a DOCTYPE statement; it is discussed in section 2.8.  Your 
example did not specify a root element type; the DOCTYPE statement I added 
declares it to be xdoc.  There is nothing to stop elements with the root 
element type from occurring elsewhere in the document.

-- Ron Bourret


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