Special Edition Using XML, Second Edition

Parsed Character Data

XML documents are read and processed by a specific piece of software called an XML parser. When a document is processed by the XML parser, each character in the document is read, or parsed, in order to create a representation of the data.

Any text that gets read by the parser is Parsed Character Data, or PCDATA. This is important because you will see the term PCDATA pop up all over. Element content is considered either other elements or PCDATA. Attribute values are considered PCDATA.

By definition, PCDATA is parsed, which means that the parser looks at each of the characters and tries to determine their meaning. For example, if the parser encounters a < then it knows that the characters that follow represent an element instance. ...