XML Schema Definition (XSD)

Return to Glossary

XML Schema Definition (XSD), a recommendation of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), specifies how to formally describe the elements in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document. It can be used by programmers to verify each piece of item content in a document. They can check if it adheres to the description of the element it is placed in.

Like all eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema languages, XSD can be used to express a set of rules to which an XML document must conform in order to be considered “valid” according to that schema. However, unlike most other schema languages, XSD was also designed with the intent that determination of a document's validity would produce a collection of information adhering to specific data types. Such a post-validation XML Information Set (XML Infoset) can be useful in the development of XML document processing software.

Source: XML Schema Definition(XSD)