xml-dev - Order in an XML document

[Michel Rodriguez <mrodrigu@ieee.org>]

Hi,

I was wondering if there is anywhere in the litterature, or even in a
standard, a definition of the order in an XML document?

My problem is simple: if I compare 2 elements A and B the results can be

[1] A and B are not in the same document
[2] A is before B
[3] B is before A
[4] A and B are equal
[5] A is within B
[6] B is within A

I see two options for a comparison function between A and B (similar to
Perl's cmp function):

                      option 1  option 2

[1] A and B are not in  undef    undef
    the same document  
[2] A is before B       -1        -1
[3] B is before A        1         1
[4] A and B are equal    0         0
[5] A is within B        0         1 (B starts before A)
[6] B is within A        0        -1 (A starts before B)

I could not find much about that problem, but maybe I did not look in the
right place. 

Any pointers (or thoughts)?

Thank you

Michel Rodriguez
Senior Programmer-Analyst, Electronic Services
IEEE Standards Activities
m.v.rodriguez@ieee.org
http://www.xmltwig.cx
 


***************************************************************************
This is xml-dev, the mailing list for XML developers.
To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo@xml.org&BODY=unsubscribe%20xml-dev
List archives are available at http://xml.org/archives/xml-dev/
***************************************************************************