XML
XML validator
Find out whether your XML is well-formed and exactly where it is not. Mismatched closing tags, unescaped characters and extra root elements are reported with positions.
<order id="1"> <item>Book</item> <item>Pen</order>What “well-formed” means
A well-formed XML document has exactly one root element, properly nested and closed tags, quoted attribute values and escaped special characters. DocuFormat’s checker covers the problems that cause real-world parse failures:
- mismatched closing tags (the error names the tag it expected and the one it found)
- unescaped
&(it must be written&) - a literal
<in text or attribute values - multiple root elements
- text outside the root element
- documents with no root element at all
Well-formed is not the same as valid
Validating against a schema (XSD, DTD) is a different job and is not what this tool does. If the XML is well-formed, the XML formatter will indent it for reading.
Getting unstuck
When the cause is not obvious, Explain can describe the problem in plain language, and AI Fix can suggest a corrected document. Both are opt-in; checking is always local.
Questions, answered
Does it check against an XSD or DTD?
No. DocuFormat checks well-formedness only.
Why is a bare & invalid?
In XML, & begins an entity reference. A literal ampersand must be written as &.
Does it change my XML while validating?
No. Validate reports results and leaves your input untouched.