RE: Express length constraints in a regex or use maxLength and minLength?

Hi Michael and Liam,

I greatly appreciate your comments. 

It appears we may have a fundamental disagreement on the utility of "defining constraints on data." Let me attempt to articulate the two positions.

Here is my position on defining constraints on data:

   Research and understand the operational constraints
   on the data and then create a simpleType that constrains
   the data to exactly those operational constraints, no
   more and no less.

   Thus, I determined that for my particular system, family
   name values must consist of these characters:
    - a-z and A-Z
    - space
    - period
    - apostrophe
    - dash
   And I determined that for my particular system, family
   name values are between 1 and 100 characters. These are
   my operational constraints and I created a simpleType
   that exactly expresses these constraints, no more and 
   no less. If my operational constraints change (e.g.,
   I get users with family names longer than 100 characters)
   then I will update my simpleType.

   This is the simpleType that precisely meets my operational
   constraints:

    <simpleType name="English-language-family-name">
        <restriction base="string">
            <minLength value="1" />
            <maxLength value="100" />
            <pattern value="[a-zA-Z' \.-]+" />
        </restriction>
    </simpleType>


Here is what I "think" is your position (sorry, I don't mean to put words in your mouth; this may not be your position):

   Operational constraints are constantly changing, so
   any simpleType you create to express operational
   constraints will be out-of-date almost as soon as
   you've finished creating the simpleType. So, don't
   constrain the data.  

   Instead of the above simpleType, use this:

    <simpleType name="English-language-family-name">
        <restriction base="string" />
    </simpleType>

   Essentially, this creates a synonym for the unconstrained
   string data type.

Is this an accurate statement of your position?

/Roger