XML (Extensible Markup Language)

XML is a flexible markup language for structured data that uses user-defined tags. It is widely used for configuration files, data feeds (RSS, Atom), office document formats (DOCX, ODT), and enterprise data exchange (SOAP, SVG, XHTML).

MIME Type

application/xml

Type

Text

Compression

Lossless

Advantages

+ Self-describing with user-defined tags and schemas
+ Mature ecosystem: XPath, XSLT, XSD, SAX/DOM parsers
+ Standard for RSS/Atom feeds, SVG, XHTML, and SOAP
+ Supports namespaces for mixing vocabularies

Disadvantages

− Verbose syntax compared to JSON or YAML
− Parsing is slower and more memory-intensive than JSON
− Largely replaced by JSON for web APIs

When to Use .XML

Use XML for document markup, configuration files that need validation schemas, SOAP services, and legacy enterprise integrations.

Technical Details

XML documents have a tree structure of elements with opening and closing tags, attributes, and text content. Schemas (XSD, DTD, RELAX NG) validate structure, and XSLT transforms XML into other formats.

History

The W3C published XML 1.0 in 1998 as a simplified subset of SGML. It became the backbone of enterprise data exchange in the 2000s, powering SOAP web services, RSS feeds, and office document formats.

Convert from .XML

.xml → .bson .xml → .c .xml → .cpp .xml → .csv .xml → .geojson .xml → .go .xml → .gpx .xml → .hdf5 .xml → .html .xml → .ics .xml → .java .xml → .js .xml → .json .xml → .kml .xml → .md .xml → .msgpack .xml → .ndjson .xml → .ods .xml → .parquet .xml → .protobuf .xml → .py .xml → .rs .xml → .sql .xml → .sqlite .xml → .toml .xml → .ts .xml → .tsv .xml → .vcf .xml → .xlsx .xml → .yaml .xml → .yml

Convert to .XML

.bson → .xml .c → .xml .cpp → .xml .csv → .xml .geojson → .xml .go → .xml .gpx → .xml .hdf5 → .xml .html → .xml .ics → .xml .java → .xml .js → .xml .json → .xml .kml → .xml .md → .xml .msgpack → .xml .ndjson → .xml .ods → .xml .parquet → .xml .protobuf → .xml .py → .xml .rs → .xml .sql → .xml .sqlite → .xml .toml → .xml .ts → .xml .tsv → .xml .vcf → .xml .xlsx → .xml .yaml → .xml .yml → .xml

Related Formats

.c .cpp .css .csv .go .java .js .json .jsx .less

Related Terms

DOCX ODF Protocol Buffers Sitemap XML SVG XFA XML XMP XPath XSLT XXE

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Use Cases

T Converting Legacy Data Formats for System Migration