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Confused about Elements and Attributes

Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 6:16 pm
by akuash
Hello Everyone

I have recently started learning XML and very much confused about the use of elements and attributes. I have read many articles and some rules of thumb but still unable to get a clear picture of when to use what. For example one good rule of thumb is to use single valued data as attributes and multiple valued data as elements. Another to represent data as elements and meta data as attributes. Some articles say describe several other approaches or rules. I have several questions in mind and will much appreciate if any one can help me in understanding

1) What if the data is single valued ? Should I make it an attribute or an element. E.g. Marital Status of a person is single valued at the same time its data. What will be a difference in an attribute and element in such a case ?

2) For example Date of birth is also a single valued data but many forums suggested making separate elements for day month and year and some suggested making a date of birth element and day year and month its attributes. What is the difference How will either approach help ?

3) what is more useful for search operations and how ? If I want to design it in such a way that its more useful and efficient for searching what shall I do. For example what difference an element or an attribute of date of birth will make for a search operation I.e. if I want to search people born in 1980 or blah blah.

I will much appreciate your help.

Cheers