XML stands for Extensible Markup Language and is used to describe data in a structured way. Unlike other programming languages, XML cannot perform computing operations by itself. Instead, any programming language or software can be implemented for structured data management. XML is used in many aspects of web development and supports information exchange between computer systems such as websites, databases, and third-party applications. Here are some of the main uses of XML:

• Transferring data: XML is a format that programmers use to transfer data in a structure that can be parsed by all types of programming languages and applications without errors or misconfigurations. It is commonly used for creating APIs, and SOAP and XML-RPC are two types of XML APIs used in web services.

• Formatting documents: XML is a relatively simple format that can be used to create layouts, format documents, and create different content types that are generated by building dissimilar types of content, including web, print, and mobile content.

• Separating data from presentation: XML is often used to separate data from presentation. XML does not carry any information about how to be displayed, and the same XML data can be used in many different presentation scenarios. Because of this, with XML, there is a full separation between data and presentation.

• Storing or transporting data: In many HTML applications, XML is used to store or transport data, while HTML is used to format and display the same data. XML separates data from HTML, so when displaying data in HTML, you should not have to edit the HTML file when the data changes.

• Creating information formats: The XML standard is a flexible way to create information formats and electronically share structured data via the public internet, as well as via corporate networks. XMLs primary function is to create formats for data that is used to encode information for documentation, database records, transactions, and many other types of data.

XML is a well-defined, general-purpose, data transfer language thats designed to facilitate the transfer of data from one system to another in a standard way.