XML Formatter

Present XML code in a well-organized easy to read format.

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Our XML Formatter transforms provided XML code into a standardized format for enhanced readability Copy and paste your XML content into the provided text area. Click on the “Format XML” to perform the transformation. The tool will format the XML code with proper indentation, making it easier to understand and edit.

What is XML?

XML, or eXtensible Markup Language, is a markup language that defines rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. XML is often used to structure, store, and transport data, particularly in web applications and services.

XML Syntax Summary

XML documents consist of elements enclosed in angle brackets.

XML Declaration:

  • The XML declaration is optional but can specify the version and encoding:
    ‹?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?›

Document Structure:

  • An XML document has a root element that contains all other elements.

Tags:

  • XML documents are made up of tags, which define elements.
  • Tags are enclosed in angle brackets (< >).

Element Structure:

  • Elements consist of an opening tag, content, and a closing tag:
    ‹element›content‹/element›

Attributes:

  • Elements can have attributes, providing additional information about the element.
  • Attributes are included in the opening tag:
    ‹element attribute="value"›content‹/element›

Nesting:

  • Elements can be nested inside other elements to represent hierarchical structures:
    ‹parent›‹child›content‹/child›‹/parent›

Empty Elements:

  • Elements with no content are represented as self-closing tags:
    ‹emptyElement /›

Comments:

  • Comments are enclosed in ‹!-- --› and are ignored by XML parsers:
    ‹!-- This is a comment --›

CDATA Section:

  • CDATA sections allow including character data that should not be parsed as XML:
    ‹![CDATA[ This is character data ]]›

Whitespace Handling:

  • Whitespace, including spaces and line breaks, is generally preserved in XML documents.

Case Sensitivity:

  • XML is case-sensitive. ‹Element› and ‹element› are considered different.

Entity References:

  • Special characters can be represented using HTML entity references.