title: Why use an empty element in XML?
body: <p>Rank amateur here. I get the instructions on HOW to use an empty element in XML. But why would you? What would it be used for, other than (I guess) to add a blank record when the XML is parsed? </p>
  
  <p>Here's information from W3Schools: </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>"Empty XML Elements An element with no content is said to be empty. In
    XML, you can indicate an empty element like this: <code>&lt;element&gt;&lt;/element&gt;</code>
    or you can use an empty tag, like this (this sort of element syntax is
    called self-closing): <code>&lt;element /&gt;</code> The two forms above produce
    identical results in an XML parser."</p>
  </blockquote>