JSON vs XML: What's the Difference?

Details

What is JSON?

JSON is used to store information in an organized, and easy-to-access manner. Its full form is JavaScript Object Notation. It offers a human-readable collection of data which can be accessed logically.

In this XML vs. JSON tutorial, you will learn:

What is XML?

XML is a markup language which is designed to store data. It's popularly used or 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

KEY DIFFERENCE

  • JSON object has a type whereas XML data is typeless.
  • JSON does not provide namespace support while XML provides namespaces support.
  • JSON has no display capabilities whereas XML offers the capability to display data.
  • JSON is less secured whereas XML is more secure compared to JSON.
  • JSON supports only UTF-8 encoding whereas XML supports various encoding formats.

History of JSON

Here are important landmarks that form the history of JSON:

History of XML

Here, are the important landmark from the history of XML:

Features of JSON

Features of XML

Difference between JSON and XML

Here is the prime difference between JSON vs. XML

JSON XML
JSON object has a type XML data is typeless
JSON types: string, number, array, Boolean All XML data should be string
Data is readily accessible as JSON objects XML data needs to be parsed.
JSON is supported by most browsers. Cross-browser XML parsing can be tricky
JSON has no display capabilities. XML offers the capability to display data because it is a markup language.
JSON supports only text and number data type. XML support various data types such as number, text, images, charts, graphs, etc. It also provides options for transferring the structure or format of the data with actual data.
Retrieving value is easy Retrieving value is difficult
Supported by many Ajax toolkit Not fully supported by Ajax toolkit
A fully automated way of deserializing/serializing JavaScript. Developers have to write JavaScript code to serialize/de-serialize from XML
Native support for object. The object has to be express by conventions - mostly missed use of attributes and elements.
It supports only UTF-8 encoding. It supports various encoding.
It doesn't support comments. It supports comments.
JSON files are easy to read as compared to XML. XML documents are relatively more difficult to read and interpret.
It does not provide any support for namespaces. It supports namespaces.
It is less secured. It is more secure than JSON.

JSON Code vs XML Code

Let's see a sample JSON Code 

{
  "student": [ 
	
     { 
        "id":"01", 
        "name": "Tom", 
        "lastname": "Price" 
     }, 
	
     { 
        "id":"02", 
        "name": "Nick", 
        "lastname": "Thameson" 
     } 
  ]   
}

Let's study the same code in XML 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<root>
	<student>
		<id>01</id>
		<name>Tom</name>
		<lastname>Price</lastname>
	</student>
	<student>
		<id>02</id>
		<name>Nick</name>
		<lastname>Thameson</lastname>
	</student>
</root>

Advantages of using JSON

Here are the important benefits/ pros of using JSON:

Advantages of using XML

Here are significant benefits/cons of using XML:

Disadvantages of using JSON

Here are cons/ drawback of using JSON:

Disadvantages of using XML

Here, are cons/ drawbacks of using XML:

 

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