The Root Element

Each well- formed XML document must contain one element that contains all the other elements. The containing element is called the root element. The root element is a very important part of XML documents, especially when you look at them from a programming point of view, because you parse XML documents starting with the root element. In ch02_01.xml, developed at the start of this chapter, the root element is the <DOCUMENT> element (although you can give the root element any name ):

 <?xml version = "1.0" standalone="yes"?>  <DOCUMENT>  <CUSTOMER>         <NAME>             <LAST_NAME>Smith</LAST_NAME>             <FIRST_NAME>Sam</FIRST_NAME>         </NAME>         <DATE>October 15, 2003</DATE>         <ORDERS>             <ITEM>                 <PRODUCT>Tomatoes</PRODUCT>                 <NUMBER>8</NUMBER>                 <PRICE>.25</PRICE>             </ITEM>             .             .             .             <ITEM>                 <PRODUCT>Lettuce</PRODUCT>                 <NUMBER>6</NUMBER>                 <PRICE>.50</PRICE>             </ITEM>         </ORDERS>     </CUSTOMER>  </DOCUMENT>