Paste JSON, XML, HTML, SQL... and get it instantly formatted

Format Express
Format this value in a new tab
Show multiline content
Replace unicode and escaped characters
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About

Format Express is the ideal companion to help you read minified input found in logs or web services.

Universal online formatter (JSON, XML, HTML, SQL, …): what you paste is immediately beautified with syntax highlighting, node navigation, minimap, recursive formatting, search supporting regular expression, ...

What are the supported formats ?
  • JSON, and anything that looks like JSON (like the dump of a Javascript object, HJSON, dictionary without quotes, ...).
  • XML, either a complete document or just a fragment.
  • HTML, and also formats CSS inside <style> tag.
  • YAML, not much for formatting, but for a nice viewer.
  • SQL, mostly ANSI syntax (⚠ vendor specific dialects and PL/SQL may not be correctly interpreted).
Is this a validator ?

No, it's not a validator: the formatter is very permissive and will do its best even for invalid data.

What do you mean by “permissive” ?

I'm just trying to make your life easier:

  • you copied JSON from a log file and mistakenly included the date/time ? Format Express will format the JSON nonetheless.
  • your browser added minus signs at the beginning of each XML tags ? Format Express will remove them.
  • you selected input from a fixed-width console which adds dummy new lines every 80 chars ? Format Express will ignore them.
  • you found XML inside another XML tag ? Format Express can unescape the inner XML and format it.
  • you uncovered an ugly SQL request in Java source code ? Paste it with the quotes and Format Express will unescape it for you.
  • and more...
Tell me about privacy. Is my data safe ?

Yes. The data submitted on this site is securely sent over HTTPS to the server for the formatting, where it is neither saved* nor logged.
* the only exception is when using the link API where the input is saved for 10 days.

How can I trust you ?

You can't ! So if your data contains sensitive or personal information, do not submit it on any random website, including this one.

Keyboard shortcuts
  • Arrow keys : navigate from line to line, expand or collapse blocks.
  • Ctrl + arrow keys : navigate 20 lines at a time.
  • Alt + arrow keys : navigate between lines of the same level.
  • Ctrl + Alt + arrow keys : scroll window.
Can it be used from command line ?  
Yes, there is an http API (beta) that can be used with curl; 2 methods available :
  • format : returns the formatted input as raw text
  • link : returns a unique link to explore the formatted input in your browser (with syntax coloring, blocks, etc...)
See examples below :
# Raw formatting is available on /api/beta/format ; Send the input in the body of a POST request. $ curl https://format-express.dev/api/beta/format -d '{"test":{"success":true}}' { "test": { "success": true } } # To view the result in your browser, use the /api/beta/link ; The link is available for 10 days. $ curl https://format-express.dev/api/beta/link -d '{"test":{"success":true}}' https://format-express.dev/snippet/foo1234 # Extract the relevant lines of a file and pipe them to the curl command with the "-d @-" option. $ grep 08:25:00 file.log | curl https://format-express.dev/api/beta/format -d @- 2021-07-04 08:25:00 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> ... # TIP: for easier usage, create an alias. $ alias formatexpress='curl https://format-express.dev/api/beta/format -d @-' $ sed '2,4!d' file.log | formatexpress 2021-07-04 00:02:48 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> ...
Latest features
  • Adds API entry point (beta) for command line formatting (July 2021)
  • The viewer now supports YAML (June 2021)
  • Improved HTML and CSS support (May 2021)
  • Filter option in search to show only lines with matches (April 2021)
  • Warnings for mismatched tags and symbols (March 2021)
  • Huge performance improvement for large inputs, and the max limit size has been increased to 8Mb. (March 2021)
  • Settings to change the number of spaces used for indentation. More settings will be added later (February 2021)
  • Keyboard navigation, drag and drop of text and files (January 2021)
  • Replace unicode notation \uXXXX or &#XXXX; with the real character via a tooltip menu (December 2020)
  • Detect XML or JSON inside a value. The value can be unescaped and formatted via a tooltip menu (December 2020)
  • Minimap of the formatted text for easier navigation (November 2020)
  • In-app search, with regular expressions support (September 2020)
  • Dark mode (May 2020)
  • Breadcrumb navigation for XML and JSON (May 2020)
  • Partial Hjson support : comments, multiline strings (April 2020)
  • Support for input copied from a fixed-width console (April 2020)
  • Syntax highlighting for XML, JSON and SQL + expand/collapse nodes (March 2020)
  • More flexibility for the XML formatter and limited HTML support (February 2020)
  • More flexibility for the JSON formatter : fragments, single quotes, missing quotes... (January 2020)
Created by Christophe Boulet : LinkedIn Stackoverflow
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