THE WORLD'S LARGEST WEB DEVELOPER SITE
HTML CSS JAVASCRIPT SQL PHP BOOTSTRAP HOW TO JQUERY W3.CSS ANGULARJS XML MORE FORUM EXAMPLES REFERENCES
×

JS Tutorial

JS HOME JS Introduction JS Where To JS Output JS Statements JS Syntax JS Comments JS Variables JS Operators JS Arithmetic JS Assignment JS Data Types JS Functions JS Objects JS Events JS Strings JS String Methods JS Numbers JS Number Methods JS Arrays JS Array Methods JS Array Sort JS Array Iteration JS Dates JS Date Formats JS Date Get Methods JS Date Set Methods JS Math JS Random JS Booleans JS Comparisons JS Conditions JS Switch JS Loop For JS Loop While JS Break JS Type Conversion JS Bitwise JS RegExp JS Errors JS Scope JS Hoisting JS Strict Mode JS this Keyword JS Let JS Const JS Debugging JS Style Guide JS Best Practices JS Mistakes JS Performance JS Reserved Words JS Versions JS Version ES5 JS Version ES6 JS JSON

JS Forms

JS Forms Forms API

JS Objects

Object Definitions Object Properties Object Methods Object Constructors Object Prototypes

JS Functions

Function Definitions Function Parameters Function Invocation Function Call Function Apply Function Closures

JS HTML DOM

DOM Intro DOM Methods DOM Document DOM Elements DOM HTML DOM CSS DOM Animations DOM Events DOM Event Listener DOM Navigation DOM Nodes DOM Collections DOM Node Lists

JS Browser BOM

JS Window JS Screen JS Location JS History JS Navigator JS Popup Alert JS Timing JS Cookies

JS AJAX

AJAX Intro AJAX XMLHttp AJAX Request AJAX Response AJAX XML File AJAX PHP AJAX ASP AJAX Database AJAX Applications AJAX Examples

JS JSON

JSON Intro JSON Syntax JSON vs XML JSON Data Types JSON Objects JSON Arrays JSON Parse JSON Stringify JSON PHP JSON HTML JSON JSONP

JS Examples

JS Examples JS HTML DOM JS HTML Input JS HTML Objects JS HTML Events JS Browser JS Quiz JS Certificate

JS References

JavaScript Objects HTML DOM Objects


JSON vs XML

❮ Previous Next ❯

Both JSON and XML can be used to receive data from a web server.

The following JSON and XML examples both define an employees object, with an array of 3 employees:

JSON Example

{"employees":[
    { "firstName":"John", "lastName":"Doe" },
    { "firstName":"Anna", "lastName":"Smith" },
    { "firstName":"Peter", "lastName":"Jones" }
]}

XML Example

<employees>
    <employee>
        <firstName>John</firstName> <lastName>Doe</lastName>
    </employee>
    <employee>
        <firstName>Anna</firstName> <lastName>Smith</lastName>
    </employee>
    <employee>
        <firstName>Peter</firstName> <lastName>Jones</lastName>
    </employee>
</employees>

 JSON is Like XML Because

  • Both JSON and XML are "self describing" (human readable)
  • Both JSON and XML are hierarchical (values within values)
  • Both JSON and XML can be parsed and used by lots of programming languages
  • Both JSON and XML can be fetched with an XMLHttpRequest

JSON is Unlike XML Because

  • JSON doesn't use end tag
  • JSON is shorter
  • JSON is quicker to read and write
  • JSON can use arrays

The biggest difference is:

 XML has to be parsed with an XML parser. JSON can be parsed by a standard JavaScript function.

Why JSON is Better Than XML

XML is much more difficult to parse than JSON.
JSON is parsed into a ready-to-use JavaScript object.

For AJAX applications, JSON is faster and easier than XML:

Using XML

  • Fetch an XML document
  • Use the XML DOM to loop through the document
  • Extract values and store in variables

Using JSON

  • Fetch a JSON string
  • JSON.Parse the JSON string

❮ Previous Next ❯