XML formatter, minifier, and validator

Format XML for reading, minify it for storage or transfer, and check whether it is well-formed. The tool runs in your browser and reports errors in malformed input.

Format XML: Takes minified or unformatted XML and applies proper indentation and line breaks to make it easier to read and debug.
Minify XML: Removes all unnecessary spaces, tabs, and newlines to compress the XML, reducing its size for more efficient storage or transmission.
Validate XML: Checks if your XML data is correctly structured, identifying any errors so you can fix them before using it.

What is XML

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XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a flexible, self-descriptive language used to define documents in a structured format that both humans and machines can understand. It is widely used across various industries for data interchange and configuration due to its ability to describe complex, nested structures.

Although XML has been largely overtaken by JSON for web data interchange, it remains a staple in many legacy systems, enterprise solutions, and specialised applications. It allows developers to create custom tags and structure data in a hierarchical format, making it a powerful tool for more intricate data models.

At its core, XML uses a tree structure where each element can contain text, attributes, or other elements. Here’s an example of a basic XML document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<film>
  <title>Children of Men</title>
  <director>Alfonso Cuarón</director>
  <year>2006</year>
  <genres>
    <genre>Thriller</genre>
    <genre>Action</genre>
    <genre>Science fiction</genre>
  </genres>
</film>

In the example above, <film>, <title>, <director>, <year>, and <genres> are the elements, and the text inside them, such as “Children of Men” and “2006”, are the data values. XML allows for a high degree of flexibility, but this can also make it more verbose and harder to manage in comparison to JSON.

The structure of XML includes:

Elements are enclosed in tags, such as <title>, and can nest within other elements.
Attributes can be included in the opening tag to provide additional information: <movie rating="PG-13">.
Data is represented either as the text within an element or in attributes.

When data is transferred between systems or applications, it is often encoded in XML. For example, configuration files for web servers or enterprise software are frequently written in XML, and certain protocols, like SOAP, use XML exclusively. XML is used across a variety of fields, including but not limited to:

System configurations: XML is commonly used in configuration files for software systems and services. Its hierarchical nature makes it ideal for describing settings in complex systems.
Data interchange: While JSON is now the default for many web-based applications, XML is still prevalent in enterprise data exchanges, especially in environments where backward compatibility is required.
Document storage: Many document formats, such as Microsoft Office documents and OpenDocument files, are built on XML to structure their contents.
APIs and web services: Older APIs, especially those based on SOAP, rely heavily on XML for message formatting and data interchange between systems.

XML has remained relevant over the years for several reasons:

Flexibility: XML allows users to define custom tags and structures, making it highly adaptable for various needs.
Widely supported: Almost every programming language offers support for parsing and generating XML, and it remains a core standard in many industries.
Self-descriptive: Unlike JSON, XML tags provide additional context, making the data more understandable without external documentation.
Extensibility: XML allows for schema definitions (XSD), which help ensure that the data structure adheres to specific rules and standards.

However, XML’s complexity can sometimes make it challenging to work with. Large XML files, especially those with deep nesting, can become cumbersome to navigate, and validating the structure can be difficult without the right tools. That’s where an XML formatter, minifier, and validator can simplify your workflow.

What each action changes

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Validation checks whether the XML is well-formed. It does not validate against an XSD, DTD, or application-specific rules. Formatting changes indentation and line breaks. Minification can remove whitespace-only text nodes, comments, the XML declaration, and newlines, and can collapse empty element pairs according to the selected options.

Whitespace can be meaningful in mixed-content XML, and comments or declarations may matter to another system. Review minified output before replacing a source document. Entity handling and serialisation can also normalise syntax without changing the parsed tree. Input and options are stored in localStorage.

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XML formatter, minifier, and validator

What is XML

What each action changes

Related tools

Further reading