YAML to XML

Convert YAML data to XML.

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YAML to XML Converter Online

The YAML to XML converter rewrites YAML data as well-formed XML. Use it when a YAML configuration or fixture has to be consumed by a Java or .NET application, a SOAP service, an XSLT pipeline, or any legacy system that speaks XML only.

Mapping rules

  • Each mapping key becomes an element with the same name, containing its value.
  • A sequence under a key repeats that element: tags: [a, b] → <tags>a</tags><tags>b</tags>. This is the convention most XML-to-object mappers expect.
  • A top-level sequence has no key to repeat, so each entry is wrapped in the List item element, e.g. <item>. Lists nested directly inside lists are flattened into the same repeated element.
  • Scalars are written as text, with <, >, and & escaped. true, numbers, and dates appear exactly as their text form; null becomes an empty element.
  • Invalid names are sanitised — spaces and punctuation turn into underscores and a leading digit gets an underscore prefix.

Options

Choose the name of the root element that wraps the whole document, the list item element name, indentation (2 or 4 spaces, tabs, or everything on a single line), and whether the <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> declaration is added. After conversion the output is parsed again and a summary confirms it is well-formed, with counts of elements and nesting depth.

Good to know

YAML anchors are expanded, so shared blocks appear in every place they are referenced. Comments are not carried over because XML comments cannot be placed reliably from parsed data. Multi-document YAML is treated as a top-level list, so every document ends up in its own list item element under the root.

View the result as a tree in the XML Viewer, check it with the XML Validator, or go back with XML to YAML. JSON sources can be converted with JSON to XML.

Frequently Asked Questions

A list under a key repeats that key as an element for every item, so members: with three entries becomes three <members> elements. When the whole document is a list (it has no key of its own), each item is wrapped in the “List item element” (item by default).

Element names cannot contain spaces or start with a digit, so such characters are replaced: “first name” becomes first_name and “1st” becomes _1st. Special characters in values such as < and & are escaped automatically.

No — every key becomes a child element, which is the most predictable mapping and works with any XML consumer. Rename or restructure with the XSL Transform tool if your schema requires attributes.