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Asked: 2026-05-21T18:17:48+00:00

I am just learning to write XML and associated DTD’s, and I’m wondering if

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I am just learning to write XML and associated DTD’s, and I’m wondering if I can combine certain things in one line of an !ATTLIST.

eg:

I have an element weight, and I want to have (kg|lb) as options, but set "kg" as the default. None of these are essential, so the status is #IMPLIED, but I also want to have a default weight of “1”.

Can I legally put all this in one line:

<!ELEMENT weight (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST weight unit CDATA "1" (kg|lb) "kg" #IMPLIED>

Or can I do it this way:

<!ELEMENT weight (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST weight unit CDATA>
<!ATTLIST weight unit "1" #IMPLIED>
<!ATTLIST weight unit (kg|lb)>
<!ATTLIST weight unit "kg" #IMPLIED>

I suspect there are problems with both, and I am a little confused as to how I combine these features (or if I even can) – so I would really appreciate a little guidance on doing this properly.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Ok, I have got it working by doing the following, although it might not be the ‘accepted practice’ way:

    <!ELEMENT weight (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST weight qty  CDATA "1">
<!ATTLIST weight unit CDATA (kg|lb) "kg">

    I had to break the value out into its own attribute (which makes sense now I think about it), and remove the #IMPLIED, since I read somewhere that by setting a default value, its implied anyway.

    Hopefully this will help someone else (assuming its the right way to do it)

    Cheers

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