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

Format Express
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About

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

This is an 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, php serialization...).
  • XML, either a complete document or just a fragment.
  • HTML, and also formats CSS inside <style> tag and Javascript inside <script> 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 with malformed data.

What do you mean by “permissive” ?

I just try to make your life easier:

  • you copied JSON from a log file and mistakenly included the date/time logs ? 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 much 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.
* unless using the link API (see below). In this case 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.

Can I paste an URL and get its response formatted ?  
    Yes, but there are some restrictions. The URL will be called by your browser, so the CORS security mechanism applies : the content can be retrieved only if the response contains an Access-Control-Allow-Origin header. This header is required to allow the response to be read by Format Express. It can be either one of those : Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * # any origin Access-Control-Allow-Origin: https://format-express.dev # explicitly allow Format Express Alternatively, you may try to disable CORS security in your browser, or call the URL yourself and paste it manually (yeah, life is harsh).
Can I use Format Express from the 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" ?> ...
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.
Latest features
  • Display Java stacktrace + various smaller improvements (May 2025)
  • Improved text chunk modal (broader usage, better unescape, ...) (November 2024)
  • Improved formatting for raw Ruby objects (September 2024)
  • Added setting for XML tags disposition (tags on separate lines) (August 2024)
  • Improved SVG preview (August 2024)
  • Added setting to align JSON values inside the same block (July 2024)
  • Added setting to unescape all unicode sequences in JSON values(May 2024)
  • Rework on the unescape unicode chars tooltip menu, and add settings to do it automatically (JSON and/or XML) (February 2024)
  • Added setting to handle malformed JSON with values split on several lines (February 2024)
  • Can wrap lines in the multiline content modal (January 2024)
  • Added settings to toggle on/off the decorators (January 2024)
  • When an URL is pasted, request its content via the browser and format it (November 2023)
  • Better support for raw HTTP headers (August 2023)
  • Coordinates (latitude, longitude) can be opened in OpenStreetMap (July 2023)
  • Added settings, like the date format for date and timestamps (in tooltips) (May 2023)
  • Improved formatting of input containing noise like log tags: [2023-03-31 15:40:34:380] INFO… (April 2023)
  • Handle JSP syntax and taglibs in HTML code (September 2022)
  • Display dates in human format on hover (August 2022)
  • Preview of images, either as raw data or via URL (July 2022)
  • Dynamic preview of SVG paths and HTML colors (March 2022)
  • Support for raw Javascript (beta) (January 2022)
  • Better support for XML DTDs (December 2021)
  • Format Javascript inside HTML documents (November 2021)
  • Support for PHP serialized objects (October 2021)
  • 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)
How to support Format Express ?


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Created by Christophe Boulet : LinkedIn Stackoverflow
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