XML question multiple parents for child element

pld · 03-17-2005, 12:50 PM

Hi all,

I have some XML that I am generating, and I am trying to decide on a structure for the data. I bascially have multiple children elements that may fall under multiple parents like this:

Code:

...
<field_name>
     <mine>some data</mine>
     <theirs>some data</theirs>
</field_name>
<no_of_chars>
     <mine>55</mine>
     <theirs>65</theirs>
</no_of_chars>

Can anyone see why this might be a problem, or should I give a unique name to the children relating to their parents in some way? Maybe like:

Code:

...
<field_name>
     <mine_name>some data</mine_name>
     <theirs_name>some data</theirs_name>
</field_name>
<no_of_chars>
     <mine_chars>55</mine_chars>
     <theirs_chars>65</theirs_chars>
</no_of_chars>

any thoughts here? I am kinda new to XML, so I am not sure if this would be okay... Would a parser understand that an element with a certain name is for that parent/child relationship only?

TheLinuxDuck · 03-17-2005, 02:14 PM

A child element belongs solely to it's parent. As well, parents can have the same named children, and they won't overlap with other parents. However, if you provide parents, of the same child, with the same name, those parents will combine their data into one segment.. at least, perl's XML::Simple does this.. I would assume that other parsers would do the same thing.

like:

Code:

<beans>
  <bacon>
    <potato> Please! </potato>
    <sandwich> Pimento </sandwich>
  </bacon>
  <bacon>
    <descrip> This will cojoin with previous 'bacon' </descrip>
  </bacon>
  <salad>
    <potato>  However, this child is unique to 'salad' </potato>
  </salad>
</beans>

Anyone else have any ideas?