What becomes the root element?

If your JSON is an object with exactly one top-level property, that property names the root — which is what makes the conversion reversible. Anything else has no name of its own, so it is wrapped in an element you can rename, and you get a warning saying so.

How do I produce attributes rather than child elements?

Prefix the property name with @. {"user":{"@id":"1","name":"Ada"}} produces Ada . A property called #text becomes the element's text content. These are the same conventions the XML to JSON converter reads, so the two round-trip.

What happens to property names that are not valid XML names?

XML element names cannot contain spaces and cannot start with a digit. A name like "first name" is renamed to first_name and "1st" to _1st — and every rename is listed in a warning. Renaming silently would be a wrong answer; refusing outright would make the tool useless on ordinary JSON.

How are arrays represented?

As repeated elements sharing the parent's name, which is how XML expresses a list. {"line":["a","b"]} becomes a b . An empty array becomes a single empty element.

Will long numbers survive?

Yes. Numbers are written from the exact digits in your JSON rather than being read into a JavaScript number, so a 20-digit identifier is copied across character for character.

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JSON

JSON to XML

Convert JSON into well-formed, indented XML in your browser — with attribute support, and every renamed field reported rather than silently changed.

JSON

Wrapper element

Array items

Indent

Include the XML declaration

XML

The XML appears here.

How JSON maps onto XML

XML is the older and stricter of the two formats, and it demands things JSON never asks for: exactly one root element, names that follow a specific grammar, and text that escapes a handful of characters. The conversion is mostly a matter of supplying those requirements without changing what the document says.

An object becomes an element, with one child element per property.
An array becomes repeated elements sharing the property's name, which is how XML represents a list — there is no separate array construct.
A property prefixed with @ becomes an attribute on the parent element instead of a child.
A property named #text becomes the element's text content, so an element can carry both attributes and a value.
null and empty containers become empty elements (<a/>).
&, < and > are escaped in text; attribute values also escape quotes, newlines and tabs so they survive re-parsing.

Choosing the root

An XML document must have exactly one root element, and JSON has no equivalent requirement. If your document is an object with a single top-level property, that property becomes the root and the conversion is reversible — running the result back through the XML to JSON converter returns what you started with. If it is an array, or an object with several top-level properties, there is no name to use, so it is wrapped in the element named in the Wrapper element box and a warning explains that this happened.

Names that XML will not accept

JSON property names are arbitrary strings. XML element names may not contain spaces, may not begin with a digit, and are restricted to a defined character set. Real JSON is full of names like first name and 2024_total that break those rules.

Rather than failing on documents that are perfectly ordinary, this converter substitutes underscores for characters that cannot appear and adds a leading underscore where a name may not start with the character it has — so 1st becomes _1st rather than losing the digit. Every rename is listed in a warning, because a field that changed name without telling you is precisely the kind of quiet wrongness that costs an afternoon.

Common uses

Producing a SOAP or legacy-system payload from a modern JSON API response
Generating a fixture for a system that only ingests XML
Checking how a JSON structure would look in a schema-driven format
Round-tripping a document to see which parts of it XML cannot express

Frequently asked questions

What becomes the root element?: If your JSON is an object with exactly one top-level property, that property names the root — which is what makes the conversion reversible. Anything else has no name of its own, so it is wrapped in an element you can rename, and you get a warning saying so.
How do I produce attributes rather than child elements?: Prefix the property name with @. {"user":{"@id":"1","name":"Ada"}} produces <user id="1"><name>Ada</name></user>. A property called #text becomes the element's text content. These are the same conventions the XML to JSON converter reads, so the two round-trip.
What happens to property names that are not valid XML names?: XML element names cannot contain spaces and cannot start with a digit. A name like "first name" is renamed to first_name and "1st" to _1st — and every rename is listed in a warning. Renaming silently would be a wrong answer; refusing outright would make the tool useless on ordinary JSON.
How are arrays represented?: As repeated elements sharing the parent's name, which is how XML expresses a list. {"line":["a","b"]} becomes <line>a</line><line>b</line>. An empty array becomes a single empty element.
Will long numbers survive?: Yes. Numbers are written from the exact digits in your JSON rather than being read into a JavaScript number, so a 20-digit identifier is copied across character for character.

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