XML Formatter

An XML Formatter takes a tangled block of XML and lays it out with clean indentation so the structure is easy to read. This one runs in your browser with the parser built into it, costs nothing and uploads nothing. You also get a count of the elements in the document.

How the XML Formatter works

Paste your XML and the page hands it to the XML parser that ships with your browser, the same strict parser browsers use for XML documents. If the document parses, the formatter walks the tree and prints each element on its own level with a 2 space indent, then reports how many elements it found.

1. Paste XML into the box, or drop an .xml or .txt file onto the page.
2. The parser checks the document before any formatting happens.
3. Read the formatted output, one level of structure per indent step.
4. Check the element count under the output as a quick shape check.
5. Copy the result, or download it as a file.

If the same week has you reading JSON as often as XML, the JSON Formatter gives JSON data the same treatment, and most developers keep both open during a migration.

Where an XML Formatter saves real time

Exports are the common case. A sitemap, an RSS feed or a settings file shipped by some tool often arrives as one unbroken line thousands of characters long. Format it and the entries fall into a list you can search with your eyes, which is how a missing URL or a stale entry gets spotted in minutes instead of never.

Service work is close behind. A SOAP response, an API payload in XML, an Android layout or a build file like pom.xml is all nesting, and the nesting is the meaning. Reading it flat means holding the structure in your head. Reading it indented means the structure sits on the page.

Error hunting gets easier for the same reason. Indentation is the fastest map of an XML document you can get, because depth shows parent and child at a glance, and a block that steps in too far or not far enough points at the spot where a tag was closed wrong.

Well formed is not the same as valid

This is the limit that matters most on this page, so it gets said plainly. The parser checks that your document is well formed: tags match, attributes are quoted, the document has one root element, and reserved characters are escaped. It does not check the document against a DTD or an XSD schema. A document can be perfectly well formed and still break the rules of the system that receives it. If you need schema validation, this is the wrong tool, and pretending otherwise would help nobody.

The browser parser reports the first error it meets and then stops. Expect to fix one fault, format again, and meet the next one if there is a next one. The wording of the message comes from the browser itself, so the same broken file can read a little differently in Chrome and Firefox. Treat the message as the parser talking, not as a diagnosis written by this page.

One caution covers mixed content. Most elements hold either text or child elements, and formatting those is safe. An element that mixes loose text with child tags is the delicate spot, because whitespace around loose text can be part of the content. Glance at those elements once after formatting. Tag names, attribute values and text pass through as parsed. Only the layout between elements is rewritten.

Your XML never leaves the tab

The parser and the formatter run on your device. Your XML is not sent to a ToolPeko server, not stored and not read by anyone here. XML files can carry order data, customer records or internal hostnames, and none of that has any business travelling for a formatting job. There is no account, no sign-up and no daily cap. A five-line snippet and a full sitemap get the same treatment.