Both XML and HTML are markup languages for creating structured documents, but there are some key differences between them:
- Purpose: HTML is a markup language used to create web pages while XML is a markup language used to describe data.
- Tags: HTML uses a set of predefined tags to define the structure and content of web pages, while XML allows users to customize tags to suit specific data formats and structures.
- Grammar: The syntax of HTML is relatively loose, allowing users to ignore some tags and attributes, while XML has stricter requirements for syntax.
- Content: The content in the HTML document is mainly used for display and presentation, while the content in the XML document is data and information.
- Processing method: HTML documents are parsed and displayed by web browsers, while XML documents need to be parsed and processed by programs.
- Extensibility: Due to the flexibility of XML, it can be used to create various types of documents, including configuration files, document databases, etc., while HTML is more suitable for displaying web pages.
In general, HTML is a display-oriented markup language, while XML is more suitable for data description and transmission.