XML Advantages and Disadvantages

XML stands for extensible Markup Language. It was designed to store and transport data. It is a text-based markup language derived from Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). XML tags identify the data and are used to store and organize the data, rather than specifying how to display it like HTML tags, which are used to display the data. There are some advantages and disadvantages of using XML. Let us see them in detail.

XML Advantages

• It is the platform, and programming language independent therefore it can be used with any technology and platform. XML is completely compatible with Java and 100% portable.
• XML is readable and understandable, even by novices, and no more difficult to code than HTML.

The XML tag names are readable and convey the meaning of the data. The information structure is easily discerned by both humans and computers as each XML tag immediately precedes the associated data. The data structure follows a noticeable and useful pattern, making it easy to manipulate and exchange the data.

• XML gives the flexibility of modification that means without touching the application code, we can pass inputs or metadata info to the application code. For example:- If you are working with Java then after easy modification you have to compile the program, but XML solves this problem.
• XML supports Unicode which is based on international standards and it allows XML to transmit any information written in any human language.
• Since it is platform-independent in nature therefore it simplifies data sharing between various systems without any conversion.
• XML allows validation using DTD and Schema. And it makes a syntax-error-free XML document.

XML Disadvantages

• In Order to write XML files in any technology/framework-based application, we need to understand the technology/framework supplied XSD/DTD rules, which is a quite complex process.
• XML is a separate language to learn, in order to use them we need to learn its basics separately.
• In XML files compared to data, more focus is on the description of the data or decoration of the data like open tag, closing tag, maintaining the hierarchy of the tag, and e.t.c. It causes higher storage and transportation cost when the volume of data is large.
• We need to write application code (Java, Python, and e.t.c.) and their metadata (in .xml) in two separate files. It kills the readability of the application code.
• To load and process XML files, it needs XML parsers which are heavy-weight and kills the performance.
• XML doesn’t support the array.

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