XML vs JSON, What’s the Difference?
Data transfer between clients and servers plays an integral role in shaping the world wide web as we know it today. In order to communicate data between database and browser, developers need a language that’s easy to read, write, and parse. This article will take a deeper look into the differences between Extensible Markup Language (XML) and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), the two most common languages for data interchange on the web.
Imagine a situation in which a client wants to receive specific frog data from a server. Figures 1 and 2 (below) provide representations of this data in XML and JSON format respectively.
Upon initial investigation, it’s clear that XML syntax is slightly more verbose than JSON. The XML syntax resembles that of HTML tags, while JSON syntax resembles that of the JavaScript object. Despite syntactical differences, both languages are able to be parsed by a majority of today’s programming languages due to their simplicity and frequency. In addition to that, they’re both easy to read by humans and machines. Each language has their own set of advantages and disadvantages, and it’s important to note that not one of them is “better” than the other. However, there are specific use cases for each language that make them more advantageous than the other.
XML is better at handling more complex scenarios involving schema and implementing strict data constraints . Unlike JSON (a simple data exchange language), XML is a markup language. Because of that, it’s important to note that this article is strictly comparing XML vs JSON in regards to their data exchange capabilities. XML data structuring capabilities are much greater, offering representation of many more data types in comparison to JSON. It can include images, charts, and graphs on top of the number and text types supported by JSON. XML also supports comments and namespace, and even contains display capabilities.
JSON is better at handling simpler scenarios concerned with data exchange, JavaScript interaction, and speed. For example, if you’re building a web application’s front end that utilizes a RESTful API, it would be more advantageous to use JSON because it’s smaller, more lightweight, and easier to parse through. In this case, a web application using JSON will load faster than one using XML. Because of that, and combined with the rise of RESTful APIs, JSON popularity continues to increase, while XML popularity is in decline in data exchange applications. JSON files can contain arrays, more data types (numbers, boolean, strings), and a simple method a representing a null value.
To summarize the key differences between XML and JSON, Figure 3 (below) has been provided.
Again, when deciding whether or not to use XML or JSON files for data interchange, one must consider their application. It’s up to the developer to decide what functionality their application requires. If the data is simple and doesn’t require complex schema or data constraints, then JSON is typically advantageous. Although JSON may have more functionality limitations, its lightweight nature offers the advantage of speed. If the data requires a little more functionality and data structuring, the developer should consider implementing XML.
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