Extensible Markup Language
What is a .xml file?
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a markup language designed to store and transport data in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.
Technical Details
- Developer
- W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
- First Released
- 1998
- MIME Type
- application/xml
- Extension
- .xml
What is XML?
XML is a flexible text format that lets you define your own tags to structure data. Unlike HTML which has predefined tags, XML allows you to create meaningful names for your data elements.
XML was designed to be self-descriptive - the tags explain what the data means. This makes it excellent for data exchange between different systems that need to understand each other's data.
Key Characteristics
- Self-descriptive tags
- Hierarchical structure
- Platform-independent
- Unicode support
- Schema validation available
- Extensible and flexible
How to Open .xml Files
XML files can be opened with text editors or specialized tools:
- VS Code with XML extension
- Notepad++
- Web browsers
- Microsoft Excel
- XMLSpy (professional)
Common Uses
- Configuration files
- Data exchange (SOAP APIs)
- RSS and Atom feeds
- Office documents (DOCX, XLSX)
- SVG graphics
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Self-documenting
- Strict validation possible
- Industry standard
- Good for complex structures
Cons
- Verbose syntax
- Larger file sizes than JSON
- Slower to parse
- Complex to write manually