Elements form the backbone of XML documents, creating structures you can manipulate with programs or style sheets. Elements identify named sections of information and are built using markup tags that identify the name, start, and end of the element.
Elements can also contain attribute names and values, which provide additional information about your content. For more information, see Attributes.
Element Relationships
Relationships between elements are described using either family or tree metaphors. XML documents must contain one and only one root element. Although it can be preceded and followed by other markup, such as declarations, processing instructions, comments, and white space, the root must contain all of the content considered to be part of the document itself. For example, the following code can be an XML document with <person> as its root element.
<person><givenName>Stephanie</givenName> <familyName>Bourne</familyName></person>
