Within the scope of existing XML Schema specifications, an approach is provided to embed simple types within a complex type so an XML stream can have instances of the embedded simple types, even without the presence of XML elements. Because the approach is within the scope of existing XML Schema specifications, the approach is transparent to known XML parsers. With the approach, an XML schema will have a complex type with a mixed flag set to true and an element set to be a dummy element. The dummy element has a simple type and one of (i) a name of the dummy element and (ii) a name of the simple type is one of a predetermined set of names. This XML schema is for use with a parser which, on parsing the schema, will interpret the dummy element as one of an embedded simple type and an inherited simple type.