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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-21T23:34:47+00:00

In an XML schema you can mark an element as nillable meaning it can

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In an XML schema you can mark an element as nillable meaning it can take an explicit NULL value. See nillable and minOccurs XSD element attributes for a great explanation.

What I’m curious about is why is it called nillable? I always see nillable and think it’s a typo!

EDIT
I appreciate that nil is a synonym for null. What I’m wondering is why nil was chosen, rather than the more common (in computer science) null. Particularly as it should really be nilable (note the single L)!

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  1. Editorial Team

    What I’m wondering is why nil was chosen, rather than the more common (in computer science) null

    This depends on which part of computer science you’re coming from!

    If you look at programs written in functional languages, you’ll see nil every where, and very seldom null. And as it happens, XML and all it’s siblings such as XSLT are closely related to functional languages.

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