xsd choice for multiple elements - xsd

Question

I would like my Xml file to look like the following
<root>
<name>a</name>
<age>23</age>
</root>
or
<root>
<empno>b<empno>
<designation>ase</designation>
</root>
is it possible to create a XML schema for the above using a "choice" indicator?something like below.
<xsd:element name="root">
<xsd:complexType>
<xsd:choice>
<xsd:element name="name"/>
<xsd:element name="age" />
or
<xsd:element name="empno"/>
<xsd:element name="designation" />
<xsd:choice>
</xsd:complexType>
<xsd:element>
Is it possible to do like this?

Answer 1

Yes, You are almost there.. just missing a sequence .. Since it's the set of fields you have to wrap them under sequence..
These sequence tags will be under <Choice> tag. Now either of these set of tags (Sequence) will be validated.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xs:schema attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:element name="root" type="root"/>
<xs:complexType name="root">
<xs:choice>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="empno" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="designation" type="xs:string" />
</xs:sequence>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="name" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="age" type="xs:unsignedByte" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:choice>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:schema>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would like to add one more suggestion here:
I observe that you use nested declarations .. like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xs:schema attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:element name="root">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="trunk">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="branch1" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="branch2" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="other" type="xs:string" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
Always prefer usage of Custom types! Like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xs:schema attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:element name="root" type="root"/>
<xs:complexType name="root">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="trunk" type="trunk"/>
<xs:element name="other" type="xs:string" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:complexType name="trunk">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="branch1" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="branch2" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:schema>
This improves readability and you can reuse the complexType/simpleType ..
hope it helps..