I'm in general agreement with the proposals, apart from the suggestion that we have separate properties for each simple data type. I understand that strings are generally right-padded with spaces, and numbers left-padded with zeros. However, I don't know of any common convention for padding booleans or calendar types. If a user wants to specify a padding character for all integers, they already have several options: - set textPadCharacter explicitly on each simple element that requires padding - put textPadCharacter into a format block, and use that format block ( or more likely, another derived from it ) for all integers - create a restriction of xs:int ( or whatever ) , add the required dfdl:textPadCharacter to it, and ensure that all other padded integers types are restrictions of it. Exactly the same applies to textStringJustification, textBooleanJustification, so whatever the outcome of this, we should adopt a consistent approach for both properties. regards, Tim Kimber, Common Transformation Team, Hursley, UK Internet: kimbert@uk.ibm.com Tel. 01962-816742 Internal tel. 246742 Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU