XML Formatter

Format, validate, and beautify XML documents

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Understanding XML

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. It is widely used for storing and transporting data.

XML Syntax

XML documents consist of elements, attributes, and text content:

Elements: Defined by tags, e.g., <element>content</element>
Attributes: Name-value pairs within start tags, e.g., <element attribute="value">
Comments: Text enclosed in
XML Declaration: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

XML Example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<bookstore>
  <book category="fiction">
    <title>The Great Gatsby</title>
    <author>F. Scott Fitzgerald</author>
    <year>1925</year>
    <price>10.99</price>
  </book>
  <book category="non-fiction">
    <title>A Brief History of Time</title>
    <author>Stephen Hawking</author>
    <year>1988</year>
    <price>14.95</price>
  </book>
</bookstore>

XML vs. JSON

While both XML and JSON are used for data interchange, they have some key differences:

XML is more verbose than JSON
XML supports comments, JSON does not
XML has attributes, JSON does not
JSON is generally easier to parse and generate in JavaScript
XML has better support for namespaces and complex document structures

Common Uses of XML

Configuration files
Web services (SOAP)
Document formats (DOCX, SVG, XHTML)
RSS and Atom feeds
Data exchange in enterprise applications