What is XML?

XML marks up data with nested named tags and optional attributes. It is verbose, strict about being well-formed, and can carry a schema that says what shape a document must have.

Who uses it

Enterprise integrations, government data feeds, RSS, SOAP services and older document formats.

Reading XML

The first repeating element is treated as the rows. Attributes are read alongside child elements and prefixed so they do not collide with a same-named tag. Nesting one level deep becomes dotted column names; deeper structures are kept as text.

Writing XML

Each row becomes an element with one child per column. Header names are rewritten where they have to be, because an XML tag cannot start with a digit or contain a space, so a column called 2024 Sales becomes _2024_Sales.

What it can hold

XML is a data interchange format. Every value is text unless a schema says otherwise, and an empty element and a missing one are different things. A machine can read the table back out of it without guessing, which is what makes it safe to convert into and out of.

It keeps

Nested values. A cell can hold a list or an object rather than only a single value.
A line break inside a cell, which survives rather than ending the row.

It cannot express

Types. Every value is text. A column of digits is indistinguishable from a column of numbers until something downstream decides to read it as one, which is where a leading zero usually disappears.
Any formatting. Bold, colour, column widths and merged cells have nowhere to go.
A header row. Column names are repeated on every record instead, which is why a file in this format is larger than the table it holds.

What it looks like

Example XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<staff>
  <person id="007">
    <name>Halima Yusuf</name>
    <role>Analyst, data</role>
    <started>2024-03-15</started>
    <hours>38.5</hours>
  </person>
  <person id="012">
    <name>Jonah "Jo" Pryce</name>
    <role>Engineer</role>
    <started>2025-11-02</started>
    <hours></hours>
  </person>
  <person id="104">
    <name>Wei Chen</name>
    <role>Manager</role>
    <started>2023-06-30</started>
    <hours>40</hours>
  </person>
</staff>

Questions

How do I open XML files?

Any text editor will show you the contents. To read it as a table, paste it into the converter on this site and it appears in an editable grid. Nothing is uploaded.

Is XML a good format for sharing data?

It depends who is receiving it. Enterprise integrations, government data feeds, RSS, SOAP services and older document formats. If the recipient is outside that group, a plain CSV travels further than anything else.