Json,XML,ProtocalBuffer比较

转自：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14028293/google-protocol-buffers-vs-json-vs-xml

Json

• human readable/editable
• can be parsed without knowing schema in advance
• excellent browser support
• less verbose than XML

XML

• human readable/editable
• can be parsed without knowing schema in advance
• standard for SOAP etc
• good tooling support (xsd, xslt, sax, dom, etc)
• pretty verbose

Protobuf

• very dense data (small output)
• hard to robustly decode without knowing the schema (data format is internally ambiguous, and needs schema to clarify)
• very fast processing
• not intended for human eyes (dense binary)

All have good support on most platforms.

Personally, I rarely use XML these days. If the consumer is a browser or a public API I tend to use json. For internal APIs I tend to use protobuf for performance. Offering both on public API (either via headers, or separate endpoints) works well too.