Frequently Asked Questions about Schemas

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The following are frequently asked questions about schemas.

What is the difference between a declaration and a definition?

Declarations describe the content models (structure) of elements and attributes inside XML document instances. Definitions create new data types (simple and complex types).

What is the difference between XML Schema (XSD) and XDR schema?

The XML Schema definition language (XSD) is the current World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) specification for XML schemas. XML-Data Reduced (XDR) schema is an interim schema language offered to developers while the W3C worked on a draft implementation. MSXML 3.0 supports XDR and MSXML version 6.0 supports only XSD Schema.