Schema Basics

The XML Schema specification assumes that at least two XML documents are in use: an instance document and at least one schema document. The instance document contains the actual information we care about. The schema documents describe the structure and type of the instance document. The distinction between instance and schema is similar to the distinction between object and class in object-oriented programming languages. A class describes an object much like a schema describes an instance document.[2]

[2] In fact, class-to-schema compilers are one likely application for XML Schema.

The XML Schema specification relies on two fundamental namespace URIs. The schema URI (http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema) is used to qualify all constructs ...

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