XML Formatter
Pretty-print XML with namespace, CDATA, and comment support.
Related Tools
Documentation
What is XML Formatter?
A tool that re-indents raw or minified XML for readability, using the browser's built-in XML parser rather than a third-party library.
How it works
Input is parsed with DOMParser, then walked recursively to rebuild indented output — self-closing empty elements, single-line text-only elements, comments, and CDATA are each handled explicitly.
Common errors
Unclosed tags, mismatched closing tags, and unescaped ampersands (use & for a literal &) are the most frequent causes of a parse failure.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the XML Formatter do?▾
It parses XML with the browser's native DOMParser, then pretty-prints it with consistent indentation, preserving comments, CDATA sections, and namespaced attributes.
Does it support XML namespaces?▾
Yes — namespace prefixes (like dev:features) and their declarations are preserved exactly as written.
What happens to comments and CDATA?▾
Both are kept in place rather than stripped, since removing them can change intent (CDATA often protects literal markup characters from being escaped).
Why does it say "Malformed XML"?▾
The DOMParser reports a parser error for issues like unclosed tags, mismatched tags, or invalid characters. Unlike JSON, there's no line/column from the native parser — check for the most recently opened tag first.
What does Minify do?▾
It removes whitespace between tags, producing the smallest valid representation without changing the document structure.
Is my XML uploaded anywhere?▾
No — parsing and formatting run entirely in your browser.