• From: Eric Bohlman <ebohlman@n...>
• To: Brian Burridge <brian_burridge@c...>
• Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2000 13:04:36 -0700 (PDT)

On Tue, 1 Aug 2000, Brian Burridge wrote:

> Does anyone know if (and how) I can have one element contain itself?

Not literally contain *itself*, but an element can contain further
instances of elements of the same type, which is what you're looking for.
> 
> For example, if I want to model web sites sections. A section can
> contain other "sub"sections, which can contain other "sub"sections.
> 
> Can I do this:
> <!ELEMENT section (name, description, section+)+>

You'll have to change the section+ to section* in order to have documents
you can actually validate; as you have it, every <section> *must* contain
a nested <section>, which in turn *must* contain a nested <section>, ad
infinitum.  Any recursive definition must contain a terminating condition,
in this case an *optional* nested <section>.

• References:
  • Recursive Children?
    • From: Brian Burridge <brian_burridge@c...>

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