API Data Formats

There are many different data formats used for your applications to communicate with a wide range of APIs available on the Internet. Each format represents syntax conding data that could be read by another machine but in such a way that is wasy to understand for humands, too.

You will most likely encounter these common data formats:

  • YAML Ain’t Markup Language (YAML)
  • JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)
  • eXtensible Markup Language (XML)

YAML

---
user:
 name: john
 location:
  city: Austin
  state: TX
 roles:
  -admin
  -user

JSON

{
 "user":{
  "location":{
   "city":"Austin",
   "state":"TX"
  },
  "roles":[
    "admin",
    "user"
   ]
 }
}

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<user>
  <name>John</name>
  <location>
    <city>Austin</city>
    <state>TX</state>
  </location>
  <roles>admin</roles>
  <roles>user</roles>
</user>

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