This document compares XML and JSON formats. It finds that JSON is generally lighter in size and faster to parse than XML, though properly formatted XML is only slightly larger in size than JSON. A series of tests were conducted using different data payloads and parsing methods to analyze the performance of XML and JSON.

1. XML vs JSON

2. XML
● 1996; 19 years ago
● Document Type Definition
● XML Schema
● XML Schematron

3. JSON: The Fat-Free Alternative
● 1999; 16 years
● JSON Schema

4. Size matters

5. Shape matters

6. Methodology
● Base – root with 3 properties
● Books – 600 books in 300 categories
● EPA – geospatial data
● Twitter – twitter search results

7. Formats Used
● JSON1 – simple json
● JSON2 – minified
● XML1 – simple xml
● XML2 – minified xml
● XML3 – all non-repeating children as attributes

8. Browsers

9. XML and JSON size

10. GZIP size

11. Parsing Methods JSON
● JSON parsing with eval
eval('(' + responseString + ')');
● JSON parsing with Jquery
$wnd.jQuery.parseJSON( responseString );

12. Parsing Methods XML
● Native parser
parser=new DOMParser();
xmlDoc=parser.parseFromString(responseStri
ng,"text/xml");
● Jquery parser
$wnd.jQuery.parseXML( responseString );

13. Native Parsing

14. Jquery parsing

15. Total Time (Native)

16. Total Time (JQuery)

17. Total Time (per browser)

18. Conclusion
● JSON is lighter
● JSON is faster
● Properly formatted XML is just a tad bigger
than JSON