Convert XML to JSON

XML to JSON conversion parses an XML document and transforms its element hierarchy, attributes, and text content into a JSON object. Each element becomes a JSON key, nested elements become nested objects, and repeated sibling elements become JSON arrays.

Attributes are represented with an @ prefix in the JSON output. For example <user id="42" name="Alice"> becomes {"@id":"42","@name":"Alice"}. The element's text content (if any) becomes a special key, typically _ or #text. This convention follows the JAXB and most XML-to-JSON libraries.

XML namespaces (e.g. xmlns:xs="...") have no direct JSON equivalent. The namespace URI and prefix are typically dropped or flattened into the key name. For documents with multiple namespaces, a custom mapping may be needed. If namespace fidelity matters, convert the XML to a dictionary preserving the Clark notation {uri}localname as keys.

Two or more sibling elements with the same tag name become a JSON array. A single element with that tag name becomes an object (not an array). This means the JSON structure changes depending on how many items are present — a common source of bugs. Libraries like badgerfish or Parker conventions handle this consistently.

A clean round-trip is possible only if you use a convention-based mapping (like badgerfish or GData) that preserves all XML constructs. Plain round-trips lose attribute distinction, namespace information, and processing instructions. For lossless round-trips, keep the XML as the canonical source and generate JSON from it programmatically.