There are three common terms used to describe parts of an XML document: tags, elements, and attributes. Here is a sample document that illustrates the terms:

<address>
  <name>
    <title>Mrs.</title>
    <first-name>
      Mary
    </first-name>
    <last-name>
      McGoon
    </last-name>
  </name>
  <street>
    1401 Main Street
  </street>
  <city state="NC">Anytown</city>
  <postal-code>
    34829
  </postal-code>
</address>
          

• A tag is the text between the left angle bracket (<) and the right angle bracket (>). There are starting tags (such as <name>) and ending tags (such as </name>)
• An element is the starting tag, the ending tag, and everything in between. In the sample above, the <name> element contains three child elements: <title>, <first-name>, and <last-name>.
• An attribute is a name-value pair inside the starting tag of an element. In this example, state is an attribute of the <city> element; in earlier examples, <state> was an element (see A sample XML document).