XML and JSON

This chapter begins by looking at a running eXtensible Markup Language (XML) example, and continues with an inspection of the XML syntax. There are several ways to limit the endless flexibility in XML markup. The chapter covers technologies that allow extending XML as well as defining new standards that simplify exchanging specific data on the Web efficiently. It shows how to handle XML data with R. Another standard for data storage and interchange one frequently finds on the Web is the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). JSON is an increasingly popular alternative to XML for data exchange purposes that comes with some preferable features. The chapter introduces the JSON format with a small example, and also talks about the syntax. It enables the reader to learn how to import JSON content into R and process the information.