Processing instructions

Processing instructions (PIs) enable you to provide information to the application that uses the processed XML. Processing instructions are enclosed in <? and ?> delimiters and must have a name, called the target, followed by optional data that is processed by the application that uses the XML. Each application that uses the XML must process the targets that it recognizes and ignore any other targets.

The XML declaration at the beginning of an XML document is an example of a processing instruction. You cannot use the string xml as the name of any other processing instruction target.

Example

In this example, usething is the name of the target, and thing=this.thing is the data to be processed by the receiving application:

<?usething thing=this.thing?>