XSD facet

fractionDigits and totalDigits

Decimal precision limits, counted on the value rather than the literal — so trailing zeros do not count.

fractionDigits caps the number of digits after the decimal point; totalDigits caps the number of significant digits overall. Both are measured on the value, not on how it was written.

That means '1.50' has one fraction digit, because the trailing zero is not significant. A schema with fractionDigits 1 accepts it.

Lexical space: A non-negative integer.
Derives from: Primitive type
Category: Constraining facets

What validates

Every literal below is put through the schema validator on each test run, against the schema at the foot of this page.

1.5

What does not

1.555
More fraction digits than the example schema allows.

What catches people out

Counted on the value: '1.50' has one fraction digit, not two.
fractionDigits 0 is how xs:integer is derived from xs:decimal.
They apply only to decimal-derived types, not to float or double.

The schema used

This is the exact schema the literals above are validated against. Paste it into the validator with one of them to see the result yourself.

schema.xsd

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <xs:simpleType name="t"><xs:restriction base="xs:decimal"><xs:fractionDigits value="2"/><xs:totalDigits value="6"/></xs:restriction></xs:simpleType>
  <xs:element name="v" type="t"/>
</xs:schema>

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