XML Entities

• Logically, an XML document is made up of nested elements; physically, it is made up of nested entities.

• The main XML file is called the document entity.

• An entity is some data with a name. It can be referred-to by its name.

• Entities may contain text, graphics, audio, etc.

• In an XML document, refer to an entity as:

  &entity_name;

• Entities can be used as a shorthand for frequently-used phrases. For example, the entity reference:

  &copyright;

  could be used to insert the line:

  Copyright © 2000, Dan Keller Technical Services

• XML has five predefined entity references:

  &	&
  &lt;	<
  &gt;	>
  &quot;	"
  &apos;	'

• Entities will be covered in greater detail in Chapter 2.

Lab 1D