CODEWITHSUNDEEP
xmlschemaxsd
NotMyName
NotMyName

Reputation: 81

Describe repeating XML nodes in W3C XML Schema?

I have an XML document like:

<Root>
    <Bravo />
    <Alpha />
    <Charlie />
    <Charlie />
    <Delta />
    <Foxtrot />
    <Charlie />
</Root>

The order of the nodes does not matter. Each node may appear zero or one times, except for Charlie. Charlie may appear zero, one, or arbitrarily many times. The straightforward way to express this in XSD is:

<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <xsd:element name="Root">
        <xsd:complexType>
            <xsd:all>
                <xsd:element name="Alpha" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" />
                <xsd:element name="Bravo" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" />
                <xsd:element name="Charlie" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" />
                <xsd:element name="Delta" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" />
                <xsd:element name="Echo" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" />
                <xsd:element name="Foxtrot" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" />
            </xsd:all>
        </xsd:complexType>
    </xsd:element>
</xsd:schema>

But this does not work, because xsd:all does not allow for maxOccurs greater than 1. Since I cannot use xsd:all, what should I use?

Upvotes: 8

Views: 1403

Answers (2)

JonathanJ
JonathanJ

Reputation: 171

You could use xsd:sequence, but then the order would be important which you have stated in the question will not be guaranteed.

Looking at: http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xmlschema-1-20041028/structures.html#element-group it seems that there is not a model group that you can use, although maybe you could just define them in the complexType without using a content group?

Upvotes: 1

lexicore
lexicore

Reputation: 43651

Schematron. :)

I am not 100% sure, but I think this model cannot be expressed in XML Schema.

Upvotes: 2

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