XML Schema: using “restriction” vs just using “type” in an element

Question

I'm reviewing an XSD and looking for opportunities to make it less verbose.

I ran across lots of instances like this:

<xs:element name="MyElement" maxOccurs="1" minOccurs="1" nillable="false">
    <xs:annotation>
        <xs:documentation>Some documentation</xs:documentation>
    </xs:annotation>
    <xs:simpleType>
        <xs:restriction base="MyType"/>
    </xs:simpleType>
</xs:element>

Isn't that equivalent to:

<xs:element name="MyElement" type="MyType" maxOccurs="1" minOccurs="1" nillable="false">
    <xs:annotation>
        <xs:documentation>Some documentation</xs:documentation>
    </xs:annotation>
</xs:element>

?

If it matters, here's the type:

<xs:simpleType name="MyType">
    <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
        <xs:maxLength value="100"/>
        <xs:whiteSpace value="collapse"/>
    </xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>

Answer 1

Yes, for all practical purposes (certainly for validation purposes) it's equivalent. There might be data-binding applications that would give different results in the two cases, I wouldn't know.