best-case scenario

As an alternative to CSV and delimited formats, the absolute theoretical best advantage for XML is one-letter element names for its tags and every field quoted in delimited formats. While a practically unrealistic advantage, the overhead of XML is still slightly greater than 2 times the size of CSV or delimited formats. Typically, this is much greater. In practical terms, expect XML to be 9 to 90 times the size of CSV or delimited formats.

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This is a direct comparison and considers transfers of regular tables (all rows of a column are the same type). The only circumstance where XML is comparable to CSV and delimited formats is when data is very sparse and using minimal element names. In this case, XML makes up much of the overhead a delimited format uses in delimiters. However, there is still a meaningful difference in overhead between XML and the delimited formats.

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