RE: overriding a datatype of an attribute

> Declare an attribute
> 
> <xs:attribute name="type" type="xs:string" />
> 
> in which case it is used most often as.
> 
> Then when i include it
> 
> <xs:include schemaLocation="../attributes/type.xsd" />
> 
> and then reference it
> 
> <xs:attribute name="type" use="optional" />

That's declaring a different attribute, it's not referencing your original
declaration. To reference your original declaration, use ref="type".

> 
> can i change its type to dtReferenceType
> 
> <xs:attribute name="type" type="dtReferenceType" use="optional" />
> 
> The reason being I really do not want to create multiple 
> attributes that basically do the same thing but just require 
> a different datatype.

If they have different data types then I would have said they are
fundamentally different - the only thing they have in common is the name!

But yes, you are welcome to have multiple attributes with the same name and
different types. It might confuse your users, but that's up to you.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/