What Is the Difference Between JSON and XML

Today, with the increase in the use of Rest APIs, the number of sign languages that systems exchange data with has increased. Two of the most popular are JSON and XML. In this article, we will examine the JSON and XML languages, which are the markup languages that every software developer frequently uses. In order to see the differences between these two text formats, first of all, it is necessary to go into the details of what they both are.

What is XML

XML is short for Extensible Markup Language. One of the most important reasons for using the Nu markup language is to create easily readable documents. XML was created by Tim Berners Lee, who designed the HTML language. The development and regulation of the language is provided by the W3C.

Currently, many software exchanges data with other software using XML. It can even be said that there are softwares that use XML language as the main format. It is frequently used by content management systems, especially since the content and document structure are separate.

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XML code example

Advantages/pros of using XML:

• It makes documents portable between systems and applications. You can exchange data quickly between different platforms with the help of XML.
• XML separates data from HTML.
• XML simplifies the platform change process.

Cons/disadvantages of using XML:

• XML requires a processing application.
• XML syntax is very similar to other alternative ‘text-based’ data transfer formats that are sometimes confusing.
• No internal data type support.
• XML syntax is unnecessary.
• It does not allow the user to create their tags.

What is JSON

JSON is an abbreviation for JavaScript Object Nation. Among all software languages, it is a text language that easily analyzes the exchange process of structured data. Although it is similar to XML, it has a completely different structure. JSON was originally developed as an alternative to XML language. It can work much faster than the XML language. In addition, due to the differences in the writing format, it takes up much less space than the XML language.

Even though the JSON text language was designed specifically for JavaScript, nowadays PHP, Java, Python etc. Many programming languages use JSON. 6 data types are supported in JSON language. These; They are named Number, String, Array, Boolean, Object, and Null.

In JSON, data is stored in two ways as Object (Object) and Array (Array).

JSON code example

Advantages/pros of using JSON:

• Provides support for all browsers.
• Easy to read and write.
• Simple syntax.
• Easy to create and manage.
• Supported by all major JavaScript frameworks.
• Supported by most backend technologies.

Cons/disadvantages of using JSON:

• No namespace support, hence poor extensibility.
• Limited development tools support

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Differences between JSON and XML

• JSON is faster and smaller than XML.
• JSON is shorter and easier to read than XML.
• Considering the differences in software format, JSON takes up much less space than XML. Studies show that XML files take up 40%-60% more space than JSON files.
• JSON is not an extensible structure like XML.
• JSON has array support. There is no such concept in XML.
• While JSON originates from Javascript, XML is derived from markup languages.