What's the difference between and ?

Question

do you know if there\'s a difference between these tags on XML/XSD?

 and 

e.g:

<

Answer 1

My understanding is that they are not the same. At least if you want to validate the xml against a schema. If in your schema you define the element as nillable, let's say:

You need to explicitly in your xml set that element to null, like this:

If in your xml the element is like it will not be valid according to the schema.