Data Versus Markup
March 29, 1999
All XML documents may be understood in terms of the data they
contain and the markup that describes that data. Data is
typically "character data" (letters, numbers, punctuation...
anything within the boundaries of valid Unicode) but can also
be binary data. Markup includes tags, comments, processing
instructions, DTDs, references, etc....
The most simple example of character data and markup would be
something like the following:
<NAME>Selena Sol</NAME>
In this case, the <NAME> and </NAME> tags comprise
the markup and the "Selena Sol" comprises the character data.
As you can imagine there are few rules that manage your data
(content) other than what type of data is allowed (binary or
ASCII for example). On the other hand, there are many rules
that define how you must code your markup.
In the rest of this section, we will outline what requirements
you must satisfy in order to write well-formed XML.
XML Document Structure
Introduction to XML For Web Developers | Table of Contents
The XML Declaration
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