XML vs HTML: KEY DIFFERENCE
3 min readMay 11, 2021
A very often question to ask. So…
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
- 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
- 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
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.
