Question

I am looking for a way to have an attribute of type xs:string with a minimum length.

I have found a way to do it here, but the solution involves introducing a new type.

As i am using XML mapping/binding, it results in a shiny new class (cluttering the code with its presence as well as additional method calls) which is totally useless – it is still just a plain old String.

Is there a way to avoid introducing the custom type?

Answer 1

You shouldn’t need to declare a new (named) type – just put the restriction inside your attribute definition:

<xs:element name="foo">
    <xs:complexType>
        <xs:attribute name="bar">
            <xs:simpleType>
                <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
                    <xs:minLength value="5" />
                </xs:restriction>
            </xs:simpleType>
        </xs:attribute>
    </xs:complexType>
</xs:element>