Hi,

The validators I'm using (Xerces and Saxon) treat a zero-length regular 
expression (which is what you have after the "|") as only matching a 
zero-length string, so it shouldn't negate the validation of requiring 
digits.

You could also try
<xs:simpleType name="DfltAddrPhone_Type">
   <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
       <xs:pattern value="\d{10,15}"/>
       <xs:pattern value=""/>
   </xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>

which also should match either pattern.  Maybe your processor handles this 
one correctly.

If that doesn't work, you can use a union type, as in:

<xs:simpleType name="SizeType">
   <xs:union>
      <xs:simpleType>
         <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
            <xs:pattern value="\d{10,15}"/>
         </xs:restriction>
      </xs:simpleType>
      <xs:simpleType>
         <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
            <xs:enumeration value=""/>
         </xs:restriction>
      </xs:simpleType>
   </xs:union>
</xs:simpleType>

Hope that helps,
Priscilla

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Priscilla Walmsley http://www.datypic.com
Author, Definitive XML Schema / XML in Office 2003
            XQuery (coming in 2006 from O'Reilly)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Thomas Malia" <tommalia@w...> wrote in message 
news:eG2KwMYhGHA.1792@T......
> Thanks,
>
> I tried leaving everything after the | blank... the problem is this seems 
> to negate the validation of reqiring digits.  With what you descibed here, 
> I did not get a validation error if the field had a value of say 
> "THOMAS"... it took that as a valid value.
>
> The rule I wanted was, either you give me 10 to 15 digits OR you leave the 
> thing blank... nothing else is allowed.
>
> So far, the only solution I've come up with is to set the nillable 
> attribute to true and make the pattern: ="\d{10,15}".  This doesn't result 
> in exactly what I want because the XML document has to explicitly set the 
> elements nil attribute for it to pass, but that's not the worst thing in 
> the world.
>
>
> "Priscilla Walmsley" <nospam@d...> wrote in message 
> news:euenGdZgGHA.4976@T......
>> Hi,
>>
>> The "^" character as an anchor is not supported by XML Schema. You can 
>> just leave off everything after the | character, though, as in:
>>
>> <xs:simpleType name="DfltAddrPhone_Type">
>>    <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
>>        <xs:pattern value="\d{10,15}|"/>
>>    </xs:restriction>
>> </xs:simpleType>
>>
>> (I also slightly simplified the 10-15 digit part and took out the length 
>> constraints because they were redundant.)
>>
>> Hope that helps,
>> Priscilla
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Priscilla Walmsley http://www.datypic.com
>> Author, Definitive XML Schema / XML in Office 2003
>>             XQuery (coming in 2006 from O'Reilly)
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> "Thomas Malia" <tommalia@w...> wrote in message 
>> news:%237nimVpfGHA.5100@T......
>>>I want to create an XML Schema Type definition that will either allow the 
>>>XML document to level the element blank or if they supply any data it 
>>>must match a pattern.
>>>
>>> The one example I'm currently working on is a Phone number field.
>>>
>>> I'd like to have something like:
>>> <xs:simpleType name="DfltAddrPhone_Type">
>>>
>>>    <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
>>>
>>>        <xs:maxLength value="15"/>
>>>
>>>        <xs:minLength value="0"/>
>>>
>>>        <xs:pattern value="(\d{10})(\d)*|^*"/>
>>>
>>>    </xs:restriction>
>>>
>>> </xs:simpleType>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> When I use the above definition in XMLSpy">XMLSpy it works fine.  The regular 
>>> expression in the patter allows the creation of an element that has at 
>>> least 10 digit (\d{10}) with up to 5 more digits allowed for the 
>>> extention (\d)* OR (|) NOT anything at all (^*).
>>>
>>> However, when use this schema to validate a XML file with MSXML it flags 
>>> an empty phone number as violating the retstriction.  Also, if I try to 
>>> generate java classes from the schema using XMLBeans it says my regular 
>>> expression is invalid.  They both seem to not like the (^*) aspect.
>>>
>>> Is there some other way I can achieve what I'm after besides putting it 
>>> in the regular expression for the pattern?  Or is there a better way to 
>>> build the regular expression? (I'm DEFINATELY no RegExp expert)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance,
>>>
>>> Tom Malia
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>