XML Formatter with Validation
Format and beautify XML with proper indentation. Free browser tool — no signup required.
Quick Answer
Paste your XML and click Format to add proper indentation and line breaks for readable, well-structured XML.
How to Use the XML Formatter with Validation
- Use the input area to provide your data.
- The tool processes it instantly in your browser.
- Copy or download the result.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What validation is performed?
- The tool uses JSON.parse() which follows RFC 8259 strictly. It catches missing commas, unmatched brackets, invalid escape sequences, trailing commas, and single quotes.
- What is XML formatting?
- XML formatting adds consistent indentation and line breaks to XML documents, making the element hierarchy and nesting structure immediately visible without changing any data.
- Can I format invalid XML?
- The formatter uses a structural approach that handles most XML, but documents with significant syntax errors may produce unexpected output. Use the XML Validator to check validity first.
About This Tool
This XML Formatter with Validation combines processing with automatic syntax validation, ensuring your XML data is structurally correct before transformation. When you paste data and click the action button, the tool first attempts to parse the input according to the strict specification. If the data contains syntax errors — missing commas, unmatched brackets, invalid escape sequences, or other structural issues — the tool reports the specific error rather than producing corrupted output. This validation-first approach prevents a common development workflow problem: processing invalid data and then spending time debugging the output rather than the input. In production environments, validating data before processing is a best practice that prevents cascading errors, data corruption, and difficult-to-diagnose bugs.
What is XML Formatter?
An XML formatter takes raw or poorly indented XML and produces a clean, human-readable version with consistent 2-space indentation for each nesting level. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is widely used for configuration files, data exchange between systems, SOAP web services, RSS/Atom feeds, and document formats like Office Open XML and SVG. Minified or machine-generated XML is nearly impossible to read without formatting. This tool parses the XML structure, identifies elements and their nesting depth, and outputs a properly indented document that makes the hierarchy immediately clear. It also offers minification to compress XML by removing all unnecessary whitespace.
How to Use This Tool
- Paste your XML into the input area.
- Click Format XML to add proper indentation.
- Click Minify XML to compress for production use.
- Copy the formatted or minified output.
Common Use Cases
- Ensuring JSON is valid before sending API requests
- Validating configuration files before deployment
- Catching syntax errors early in the development process
- Verifying data integrity after transformation
Examples
<?xml version="1.0"?><root><user><name>Alice</name><age>30</age></user></root>
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