Why do we use xml?

[vijaya soft]

Hi!
What's the basic need of XML?Generally people say that it is extensiable,language neutral and all.Can u briefly explain me when we need xml in our projects and why?
Regards.
Vijaya.

[Balaji Loganathan]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=use+of+xml

[Lasse Koskela]

XML is a relatively powerful syntax for encoding data. It fits well for describing hierarchical data structures, it is easy to parse, and it is easy to debug.
XML didn't really invent anything new. It's just more flexible - admittedly carrying certain costs wrt performance. For example, character encoding has historically caused cold shivers... Not with XML.
XML also has built-in validation frameworks, DTD and XML Schema, which are missing from many other formats.