Either/Or

The pipe character is used to specify an "OR" operation. Thus, the following DTD snippet would specify an XML document in which all CONTACT elements would have a NAME child followed by either a PHONE or an EMAIL element (but not both).

	<!ELEMENT CONTACT (NAME, (PHONE | EMAIL))>
	<!ELEMENT NAME (#PCDATA)>
	<!ELEMENT EMAIL (#PCDATA)>

Note that XML regular expression matching does not perform short circuited logic. OR's imply one or the other but not both and not neither. Is that a tongue twister or what!?! Using examples to make my point, here are several invalid XML snippets based on the DTD snippet above....

        <CONTACT>
        <NAME>Jim Sanger</NAME>
        </CONTACT>

That is invalid because the DTD specified that every CONTACT must have either a PHONE or an EMAIL. The above has neither.

        <CONTACT>
        <NAME>Jim Sanger</NAME>
        <EMAIL>Jim Sanger</EMAIL>
        <PHONE>Jim Sanger</PHONE>
        </CONTACT>

This one is invalid because the contact has BOTH EMAIL and PHONE children.

        <CONTACT>
        <EMAIL>Jim Sanger</EMAIL>
        <NAME>Jim Sanger</NAME>
        </CONTACT>

This one is wrong because NAME must appear before EMAIL or PHONE.

	<!ELEMENT CONTACT (NAME, PHONE | EMAIL)>

	<!ELEMENT CONTACT (NAME, (PHONE | EMAIL))>

Grouping Elements
Introduction to XML For Web Developers | Table of Contents
Optional Children