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XML Tutorial

XML – Why and Its Uses

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XML stands for Extensible Markup Language.
Why use XML


Suppose, communication is to be established between applications by sending messages. Application A wants to send first names and last name of students to application B and B on receiving the message should acknowledge it sending message “Accepted”. There are many different message formats in which application A can send message to application B. They won’t be able to properly communicate until a proper message structure is defined between application A and B.

Thus, XML defines a message structure for the data that needs to be communicated between different applications.

Other Uses of XML


  • XML can be used to store data.
  • Better for rendering data in a structure format, i.e. records and lists and trees
  • Its is used by many programming tools/software.
  • Can be used to render HTML
Why XML is so widely used


  • Validation – XML allows validation of its data and structure using XSD or Schema.
  • Searchable – Content inside XML can be easily searched using XPATH or XQuery
  • Transformation – XSLT can be used to transform data in XML into desired format.
  • Parsing – XML has Parsing standards: DOM, SAX, StAX
Example of XML


<student>
  <firstname>Varun</firstname>
  <lastname>Goel</lastname>
</student>