Is there any difference between 'valid xml' and 'well formed xml'?

Question

I wasn\'t aware of a difference, but a coworker says there is, although he can\'t back it up. What\'s the difference if any?

Answer 1

DTD is the acronym for Document Type Definition. This is a description of the content for a family of XML files. This is part of the XML 1.0 specification, and allows one to describe and verify that a given document instance conforms to the set of rules detailing its structure and content.

Validation is the process of checking a document against a DTD (more generally against a set of construction rules).

The validation process and building DTDs are the two most difficult parts of the XML life cycle. Briefly a DTD defines all the possible elements to be found within your document, what is the formal shape of your document tree (by defining the allowed content of an element; either text, a regular expression for the allowed list of children, or mixed content i.e. both text and children). The DTD also defines the valid attributes for all elements and the types of those attributes.