What does the ref attribute on an element in an XSD do?

Question

Documentation seems to say that it references another element in the schema, but how could it be used - I\'ve never seen it in schemas that I have worked with.

Anyon

Answer 1

For example if you want to declare element types that can appear deeply nested, but also as top level elements in an instance document.

The XML Schema Primer has examples for this: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-0/