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:
©right;
could be used to insert the line:
Copyright © 2000, Dan Keller Technical Services
XML has five predefined entity references:
&
&
<
<
>
>
"
"
'
'
Entities will be covered in greater detail in
Chapter 2
.
Lab 1D