I work with XML a lot and often I come up with the question where I should go with Attributes or Elements.Most often i judge my decision based on the following opinions that I came across Google searches.
Attributes | Elements |
Used for holding meta-data (data about data, ex. ID numbers,information irrelevant to the users) | Used for holding data (information user wants to see) |
Can only be defined by a data type | Can be defined by a data type,attributes, and structures (this makes them more extensible) |
Not expandable for future changes (can only change its data type) |
Can add more attributes, change the data type or change its structure |
Cannot have multiple occurrences | Allows for multiple occurrences |
Independent of ordering | Dependent on positional ordering |
Please feel free to add on your opinions.
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