XML was designed to transport and store

data.
HTML was designed to display data.
XML stands for Extensible Markup Language.

XML is a markup language much like HTML.

XML was designed to carry data, not to display data.

XML tags are not predefined. You must define your own
tags.

XML is designed to be self-descriptive.

XML is a W3C Recommendation.








XML and HTML were designed
with different goals
XML was designed to transport and store
data, with focus on
what data is.
HTML was designed to display data, with
focus on how data
looks.
HTML is about displaying information, while XML
is about carrying information. XML is not a
replacement for HTML.
Maybe it is a little hard to understand, but XML does not DO anything.
XML was created to structure, store, and transport information.

XML is Just Plain Text

XML is nothing special. It is just plain text. Software that can handle plain text
can also handle XML.

With XML You Invent Your Own Tags

The tags in the example above (like <to> and <from>) are not defined in any
XML standard. These tags are "invented" by the author of the XML document
That is because the XML language has no predefined tags.

XML is a complement to HTML

It is important to understand that XML is not a replacement for
HTML.


In most web applications, XML is used to transport data, while
HTML is used to format and display the data.



EG:- XML is a software- and hardware-independent tool for
carrying information.


OClean Semantics - Any query language
for XML must be able to express simple queries
simply. A good XML query language should be
usable by novice web-users, not just database
experts.
SELECT expr
FROM path
WHERE cond One possibility for a clean
semantics is to base the query language upon
the SQL select-from-where statement.
OPath Expressions

Since XML elements often contain child
elements, the query language should
support "path expressions," which allow the
writer easy access to nested elements.
OAbility to Return an XML
Document

The standard behavior of most query languages is
to return a set of elements of some type.

For an XML query language the returned value
should be an XML document
O Ability to Query and Return XML
Tags and Attributes -

An XML data element contains data, a tag, and
optionally, attributes. It is imperative that an XML
query language be able to query the element tags
and attributes as well as the data.
O Intelligent Type Coercion

Since both textual and numeric data are
represented as strings in XML, the query language
should be intelligent enough in comparison
operations to determine whether a string
comparison is intended or if a coercion is
required.
O Handle Unexpected Data

Data in XML does not have to conform to a fully-
structured DTD. Therefore, it is critical that an XML
query language "do the right thing" in the face of
unexpected data as much as possible.

O Allow Queries When the DTD Is
Not Fully Known
It may often be the case with XML that the query
writer understands a part of the DTD, but not in its
entirety. The query language needs to support
wildcards in the path expressions to allow the
query writer to "skip past" parts of the document
structure of which he or she is not aware.
O Return Unnamed Attributes

In restructuring information it is often useful to
express things like "return all child elements," or
"return all child elements except this one." An XML
query language should support queries that return
elements even when their tags are unknown
O Return Trees Instead of Sets-

Although query languages usually return sets, when
restructuring an XML document it is likely that the user
will want to have the query return a more nested
structure.

O Preserve Order

SGML documents have an implicit order, and XML
documents do as well. It is important for an XML
query language to be able to optionally guarantee
that the order of returned results is the same as in
the original document.
It is as easy as HTML.
XML is fully compatible with applications like
JAVA, and it can be combined with any
application which is capable of processing XML
irrespective of the platform it is being used on.
XML is an extremely portable language to the
extent that it can be used on large networks with
multiple platforms like the internet, and it can be
used on handhelds or palmtops or PDAs.
XML is an extendable language, meaning that
you can create your own tags, or use the tags
which have already been created

It is a platform independent language
It can be deployed on any network if it is amicable
for usage with the application in use
If the application can work along with XML, then
XML can work on any platform and has no
boundaries
It is also vendor independent and system
independent. While data is being exchanged using
XML, there will be no loss of data even between
systems that use totally different formats.