Difference between XML and HTML

Matthew MartinByMatthew Martin Hours Updated

What is XML?

XML is a markup language which is designed to store data. It is popularly used for the transfer of data. It is case sensitive. XML offers you to define markup elements and generate customized markup language. The basic unit in the XML is known as an element. Extension of XML file is .xml

In this tutorial you will learn

What is HTML?

HTML is the markup language which helps you to create and design web content. It has a variety of tag and attributes for defining the layout and structure of the web document. It is designed to display data in a formatted manner. A HTML document has the extension .htm or .html.

You can edit HTML code is any basic code editor, even notepad. The edited code can be executed in any browser. Browsers render the tags used and present the content you want to display with or without applied formatting.

KEY DIFFERENCE

  • XML is abbreviation for eXtensible Markup Language whereas HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language.
  • XML mainly focuses on transfer of data while HTML is focused on presentation of the data.
  • XML is content driven whereas HTML is format driven.
  • XML is Case sensitive while HTML is Case insensitive.
  • XML provides namespaces support while HTML doesn’t provide namespaces support.
  • XML is strict for closing tag while HTML is not strict.
  • XML tags are extensible whereas HTML has limited tags.
  • XML tags are not predefined whereas HTML has predefined tags.

Features of XML

Google Trends HTML vs XML
  • XML tags are not predefined. You need to define your customized tags.
  • XML was designed to carry data, not to display that data.
  • Mark-up code of XML is easy to understand for a human.
  • Well structured format is easy to read and write from programs.
  • XML is an extensible markup language like HTML.

Features of HTML

Stack Overflow Questions HTML vs XML
  • It is a simple language which supports the authoring of web pages.
  • Rich enough to provide support for multimedia embedding in documents
  • Flexible enough to support hypertext linking

Example of XML

<?xml version="1.0>
<address>
<name> Krishna Rungta</name> 
<contact>9898613050</contact>
<email>krishnaguru99@gmail.com </email>
<birthdate>1985-09-27</birthdate>
</address>

Example of HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title> Page title </title> </head>
<body>
<hl> First Heading</hl> <p> First paragraph.</p> </body>
</html>

XML vs HTML

Parameter XML HTML
Type of language XML is a framework for specifying markup languages. HTML is predefined markup language.
Language type Case sensitive Case insensitive
Structural details It is provided It is not provided.
Purpose Transfer of data Presentation of the data
Coding Errors No coding errors are allowed. Small errors are ignored.
Whitespace You can use whitespaces in your code. You can’t use white spaces in your code.
Nesting Should be done appropriately. Does not have any effect on the code.
Driven by XML is content driven HTML is format driven
End of tags The closing tag is essential in a well-formed XML document. The closing tag is not always
required. <HTML> tag needs an equivalent </HTML> tag but <br> tag does not require </br> tag
Quotes Quotes required around
XML attribute values?. 		Quotes are not required for the values of attributes.
Object support Objects have to be expressed by conventions. Mostly using attributes and elements. Offers native object support
Null support Need to use xsi:nil on elements in an XML instance document and also need to import the corresponding namespace. Natively recognizes the null value.
Namespaces XML provides support for namespaces. It helps you to remove the risk of name collisions when combining with other documents. Does not support the concept of namespaces. Naming collisions can be avoided either using a prefix in an object member name or by nesting objects.
Formatting decisions Require more significant effort to map application types to XML elements and attributes. Provides direct mapping for application data.
Size Documents are mostly lengthy in size, especially when an element-centric approach used in formatting. The syntax is very brief and yields formatted text.
Parsing in Javascript Requires an XML DOM implementation and application code to map text back into JavaScript objects. No extra application code required to parse text. For this purpose, you can use the eval function of JavaScript.
Learning curve Very hard as you need to learn technologies like XPath, XML Schema, DOM, etc. HTML is a simple technology stack that is familiar to developers.

Advantages of using XML

Here, are significant advantages of using XML:

  • Makes documents transportable across systems and applications. With the help of XML, you can exchange data quickly between different platforms.
  • XML separates the data from HTML
  • XML simplifies platform change process

Advantages of using HTML

Following are advantages of using HTML language:

  • HTML document browser interfaces are simple to build
  • It works across a system which is otherwise unrelated.
  • HTML is easy to understand because it has a very simple syntax
  • You can use many tags to make a webpage.
  • Allows you to use various colors, objects, and layouts

Disadvantages of using XML

Here, are few drawbacks of using XML:

  • XML requires a processing application
  • The XML syntax is very similar to other alternative ‘text-based’ data transmission formats which is sometimes confusing
  • No intrinsic data type support
  • The XML syntax is redundant
  • Does not allow the user to create his tags.

Disadvantages of using HTML

Here, are few drawbacks of using HTML:

  • HTML lacks syntax checking and structure
  • HTML is not suitable for data interchange
  • HTML is not context aware
  • HTML doesn’t allow us to describe the information content or the semantics of the document
  • HTML is not object-oriented, so it, not an extensible and very unstable language
  • Data storage and interchange of data are not possible using HTML.

Version History HTML and XML

Version Year
HTML 1991
HTML 2.0 1995
HTML 3.2 1997
HTML 4.01 1999
XHTML 2000
HTML5 2014

History of XML

Version Year
XML 1.0 1998
XML 1.1 2004

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