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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-27T05:55:34+00:00

Is this one a valid XML instance? It has nothing between the the XML

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Is this one a valid XML instance? It has nothing between the the XML declaration and the root node.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><data></data>

I could not find the right place in the XML specification myself and hope that somebody will help me…

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The spec (see 2.8 Prolog and Document Type Declaration) does not require (but does allow) a newline to follow the XML Declaration.

    Formally this is written as:

    [16] PI ::= '<?' PITarget (S (Char* - (Char* '?>' Char*)))? '?>'
    …
    [22] prolog ::= XMLDecl? Misc* (doctypedecl Misc*)?
    [23] XMLDecl ::= '<?xml' VersionInfo EncodingDecl? SDDecl? S? '?>'
    …
    [27] Misc ::= Comment | PI | S

    As you can see in [22] prolog the XML Declaration is optional (see the questionark after the symbol) and zero, one or more (see the star) Misc can follow which are: Comments, other Processing Instructions (PI) or Whitespace (S). Whitespace includes the newline.

    Because Misc is optional here, there can but need not follow a newline after the declaration.

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