Example DFDL schema

Consider the following delimited ASCII text data:

int=5;float=-7.1E8

In this data

• int= and float= denote the start of an element. They are initiators.
• The semicolon after 5 marks the boundary between the two elements in a sequence, and is a separator.
• 5 is an integer in ASCII text.
• -7.1E8 is a floating point number in ASCII text.

This is represented in a DFDL schema file as follows:

<xs:complexType name="myNumbers">
  <xs:sequence>

    <xs:annotation>
      <xs:appinfo source="http://www.ogf.org/dfdl/v1.0">
        <dfdl:sequence separator=";" encoding="ascii"/>
      </xs:appinfo>
    </xs:annotation>

    <xs:element name="myInt" type="xs:int">
      <xs:annotation>
        <xs:appinfo source="http://www.ogf.org/dfdl/v1.0">
          <dfdl:element representation="text"
                textNumberRep="standard" encoding="ascii"
                lengthKind="delimited" initiator="int=" …/>
        </xs:appinfo>
      </xs:annotation>
    </xs:element>

    <xs:element name="myFloat" type="xs:float">
      <xs:annotation>
        <xs:appinfo source="http://www.ogf.org/dfdl/v1.0">
          <dfdl:element representation="text"
                textNumberRep="standard" encoding="ascii"
                lengthKind="delimited" initiator="float=" …/>
        </xs:appinfo>
      </xs:annotation>
    </xs:element>

  </xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>

Here is the same information, this time written in the short form:

<xs:complexType name="myNumbers">
  <xs:sequence dfdl:separator=";" dfdl:encoding="ascii" >
    <xs:element name="myInt" type="xs:int"
          dfdl:representation="text"
          dfdl:textNumberRep="standard" dfdl:encoding="ascii"
          dfdl:lengthKind="delimited" dfdl:initiator="int=" … />
    <xs:element name="myFloat" type="xs:float"
          dfdl:representation="text"
          dfdl:textNumberRep="standard" dfdl:encoding="ascii"
          dfdl:lengthKind="delimited" dfdl:initiator="float=" … />
  </xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>

The above examples are for illustrative purposes only. The schema requires other DFDL properties to be present in order to make it a valid example.