| DocBook: The Definitive Guide 2.0.14 (Alpha)

# primary

$Revision: 1.3 $

$Date: 2002/06/12 11:18:28 $

primary — The primary word or phrase under which an index term should be sorted

## Synopsis

### Mixed Content Model

    primary ::=
    (#PCDATA|footnoteref|xref|biblioref|abbrev|acronym|citation|
     citerefentry|citetitle|citebiblioid|emphasis|firstterm|
     foreignphrase|glossterm|termdef|footnote|phrase|orgname|quote|
     trademark|wordasword|personname|link|olink|ulink|action|
     application|classname|methodname|interfacename|exceptionname|
     ooclass|oointerface|ooexception|package|command|computeroutput|
     database|email|envar|errorcode|errorname|errortype|errortext|
     filename|function|guibutton|guiicon|guilabel|guimenu|guimenuitem|
     guisubmenu|hardware|interface|keycap|keycode|keycombo|keysym|
     literal|code|constant|markup|medialabel|menuchoice|mousebutton|
     option|optional|parameter|prompt|property|replaceable|
     returnvalue|sgmltag|structfield|structname|symbol|systemitem|uri|
     token|type|userinput|varname|nonterminal|anchor|author|
     authorinitials|corpauthor|corpcredit|modespec|othercredit|
     productname|productnumber|revhistory|remark|subscript|
     superscript|inlinegraphic|inlinemediaobject)*

### Attributes

Common attributes

Name | Type | Default
sortas | CDATA | None

## Description

In an `IndexTerm`, `Primary` identifies the most significant word or words in the entry. All `IndexTerm`s must have a `Primary`.

### Processing expectations

Suppressed. This element provides data for processing but it is not rendered in the primary flow of text.

### Future Changes

The `InterfaceDefinition` element will be discarded in DocBook V4.0. It will no longer be available in the content model of this element.

### Parents

These elements contain primary: `indexterm`.

### Children

The following elements occur in primary: `abbrev`, `acronym`, `action`, `anchor`, `application`, `author`, `authorinitials`, `biblioref`, `citation`, `citebiblioid`, `citerefentry`, `citetitle`, `classname`, `code`, `command`, `computeroutput`, `constant`, `corpauthor`, `corpcredit`, `database`, `email`, `emphasis`, `envar`, `errorcode`, `errorname`, `errortext`, `errortype`, `exceptionname`, `filename`, `firstterm`, `footnote`, `footnoteref`, `foreignphrase`, `function`, `glossterm`, `guibutton`, `guiicon`, `guilabel`, `guimenu`, `guimenuitem`, `guisubmenu`, `hardware`, `inlinegraphic`, `inlinemediaobject`, `interface`, `interfacename`, `keycap`, `keycode`, `keycombo`, `keysym`, `link`, `literal`, `markup`, `medialabel`, `menuchoice`, `methodname`, `modespec`, `mousebutton`, `nonterminal`, `olink`, `ooclass`, `ooexception`, `oointerface`, `option`, `optional`, `orgname`, `othercredit`, `package`, `parameter`, `personname`, `phrase`, `productname`, `productnumber`, `prompt`, `property`, `quote`, `remark`, `replaceable`, `returnvalue`, `revhistory`, `sgmltag`, `structfield`, `structname`, `subscript`, `superscript`, `symbol`, `systemitem`, `termdef`, `token`, `trademark`, `type`, `ulink`, `uri`, `userinput`, `varname`, `wordasword`, `xref`.

## Attributes

sortas

  `SortAs` specifies the string by which the element's content is to be sorted. If unspecified, the proper content is used.

## See Also

`indexentry`, `indexterm`, `primaryie`, `secondary`, `secondaryie`, `see`, `seealso`, `seealsoie`, `seeie`, `tertiary`, `tertiaryie`.

## Examples

For examples, see `chapter`, `indexterm`.

prefaceinfo |  | primaryie

Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.