[xquery-talk] Re: The State of Native XML databases

[Elliotte Harold]

bryan rasmussen wrote:

> I'm sorry but by this definition it sounds like there could never be
> an element that IS an xs:date only elements that look like xs;dates,
> is this really your opinion on the matter?

Well, in the words of a certain ex-president, "It depends on what the 
meaning of the word 'is' is."

If by "is an xs:date" you simply mean is a string of characters that 
satisfies the purely syntactic constraints specified in the W3C schema 
spec for strings identified as xs:date, then I suppose it's possible for 
  an element to be an xs:date.

However, if you mean anything beyond that--for instance that a string of 
characters is a certain day in history--then no, an element cannot be an 
xs:date, merely be treated as one by a particular process.

-- 
Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo at metalab.unc.edu
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