What is the purpose of XSD files?

Question

Since we can query on the XML file from C# (.NET), why do we need an XSD file? I know it is metadata file of particular XML file. We can specify the relationships in XSD, but what is its functioning then?

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Root>
  <Customers>
    <Customer CustomerID="GREAL">
      <CompanyName>Great Lakes Food Market</CompanyName>
      <ContactName>Howard Snyder</ContactName>
      <ContactTitle>Marketing Manager</ContactTitle>
      <Phone>[phone]</Phone>
      <FullAddress>
        <Address>2732 Baker Blvd.</Address>
        <City>Eugene</City>
        <Region>OR</Region>
        <PostalCode>97403</PostalCode>
        <Country>USA</Country>
      </FullAddress>
    </Customer>
  </Customers>
  <Orders>
    <Order>
      <CustomerID>GREAL</CustomerID>
      <EmployeeID>6</EmployeeID>
      <OrderDate>1997-05-06T00:00:00</OrderDate>
      <RequiredDate>1997-05-20T00:00:00</RequiredDate>
      <ShipInfo ShippedDate="1997-05-09T00:00:00">
        <ShipVia>2</ShipVia>
        <Freight>3.35</Freight>
        <ShipName>Great Lakes Food Market</ShipName>
        <ShipAddress>2732 Baker Blvd.</ShipAddress>
        <ShipCity>Eugene</ShipCity>
        <ShipRegion>OR</ShipRegion>
        <ShipPostalCode>97403</ShipPostalCode>
        <ShipCountry>USA</ShipCountry>
      </ShipInfo>
    </Order>
    <Order>
      <CustomerID>GREAL</CustomerID>
      <EmployeeID>8</EmployeeID>
      <OrderDate>1997-07-04T00:00:00</OrderDate>
      <RequiredDate>1997-08-01T00:00:00</RequiredDate>
      <ShipInfo ShippedDate="1997-07-14T00:00:00">
        <ShipVia>2</ShipVia>
        <Freight>4.42</Freight>
        <ShipName>Great Lakes Food Market</ShipName>
        <ShipAddress>2732 Baker Blvd.</ShipAddress>
        <ShipCity>Eugene</ShipCity>
        <ShipRegion>OR</ShipRegion>
        <ShipPostalCode>97403</ShipPostalCode>
        <ShipCountry>USA</ShipCountry>
      </ShipInfo>
    </Order>
  </Orders>
</Root>

I want to get data from the Order elements according to a provided CustomerID.

Also: What is the purpose of giving the relationships in XSD?

Answer 1

An XSD is a formal contract that specifies how an XML document can be formed. It is often used to validate an XML document, or to generate code from.

Answer 2

An XSD file is an XML Schema Definition and it is used to provide a standard method of checking that a given XML document conforms to what you expect.

Answer 3

An .xsd file is called an XML schema. Via an XML schema, we may require a certain structure in a given XML - which elements in which order, how many times, with which attributes, how they are nested, etc. If we have a schema for our XML input, we can verify that it contains the data we need it to contain, and nothing else, with a few lines invoking a schema validator.

Answer 4

The xsd file is the schema of the xml file - it defines which elements may occur and their restrictions (like amount, order, boundaries, relationships,...)