xsd choice for multiple elements

Question

I would like my Xml file to look like the following

<root> <name>a</name> <age>23</age> </root>   or   <root> <empno>b<empno> <designation>ase</designation> </root> 

is it possible to create a XML schema for the above using a "choice" indicator?something like below.

    <xsd:element name="root">     <xsd:complexType>     <xsd:choice>      <xsd:element name="name"/>     <xsd:element name="age" />       or      <xsd:element name="empno"/>     <xsd:element name="designation" />      <xsd:choice>      </xsd:complexType>     <xsd:element> 

Is it possible to do like this?

Answer 1

Yes, You are almost there.. just missing a sequence .. Since it's the set of fields you have to wrap them under sequence..

These sequence tags will be under <Choice> tag. Now either of these set of tags (Sequence) will be validated.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <xs:schema attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">   <xs:element name="root" type="root"/>   <xs:complexType name="root">     <xs:choice>       <xs:sequence>         <xs:element name="empno" type="xs:string" />         <xs:element name="designation" type="xs:string" />       </xs:sequence>       <xs:sequence>         <xs:element name="name" type="xs:string" />         <xs:element name="age" type="xs:unsignedByte" />       </xs:sequence>     </xs:choice>   </xs:complexType> </xs:schema> 

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I would like to add one more suggestion here:

I observe that you use nested declarations .. like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <xs:schema attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">   <xs:element name="root">     <xs:complexType>       <xs:sequence>         <xs:element name="trunk">           <xs:complexType>             <xs:sequence>               <xs:element name="branch1" type="xs:string"/>               <xs:element name="branch2" type="xs:string"/>             </xs:sequence>           </xs:complexType>         </xs:element>         <xs:element name="other" type="xs:string" />       </xs:sequence>     </xs:complexType>   </xs:element> </xs:schema> 

Always prefer usage of Custom types! Like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <xs:schema attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">   <xs:element name="root" type="root"/>    <xs:complexType name="root">     <xs:sequence>       <xs:element name="trunk" type="trunk"/>       <xs:element name="other" type="xs:string" />     </xs:sequence>   </xs:complexType>    <xs:complexType name="trunk">     <xs:sequence>       <xs:element name="branch1" type="xs:string"/>       <xs:element name="branch2" type="xs:string"/>     </xs:sequence>   </xs:complexType> </xs:schema> 

This improves readability and you can reuse the complexType/simpleType ..

hope it helps..