XML Comment Stripper
Remove <!-- --> comments from XML while leaving CDATA sections and text content untouched.
What is Comment Stripper?
A comment remover that understands where comments can and cannot appear. `<!-- -->` inside a CDATA section is text, not a comment, and text that merely mentions `<` is not markup — so a naive search-and-replace mangles documents this tool leaves correct.
How it works
The document is scanned with the same parser the validator uses, so comments, CDATA sections, attribute values and processing instructions are each recognised for what they are. Only genuine comment nodes are removed; the tool reports how many it took out and how many bytes that saved. Processing instructions can be removed as well, except the XML declaration.
- Paste the document. Drop in XML, a schema, a feed or an XPath expression. Everything is parsed in the page: no upload, no server round trip, and the tools keep working with the network switched off.
- Set the options that match your document. Indent unit, whether to keep comments, which dialect, which output method. The defaults are the safe ones — nothing that changes meaning is enabled for you.
- Read the result, then copy or download it. Results appear as you type, copy straight to the clipboard, and download with a sensible filename (.xml, .xsd, .csv). Reset returns every field to its default.
Examples
A minified document from an API response
Paste one line of XML and the Formatter indents it, wraps long start tags one attribute per line and normalises empty elements — without touching text inside mixed content.
An XPath that works in Chrome and not in your servlet
The XPath Tester evaluates against a real tree and reports the axis or function it cannot support, instead of returning zero nodes and letting you guess why.
A document that will not parse
The Validator gives line and column for every mismatched tag, stray ampersand and duplicate attribute, with the reason in words: which open element was expected, which was found.
A schema that only half matches your data
The XSD Validator marks each violation with the path of the offending node, and the Schema Generator goes the other way — inferring a starting-point XSD from real documents.
Common mistakes
Assuming a pretty-printer cannot change meaning
Whitespace between elements is often insignificant, but inside mixed content it is not: `<p>Hello <b>world</b></p>` must stay on one line. Formatting here re-indents element-only content and leaves mixed content alone.
Treating a validation pass as proof of interoperability
The DTD and XSD validators implement honest subsets. A document reported valid here can still be rejected by a full validator that understands identity constraints, substitution groups or XSD 1.1 assertions — each page lists what it does not cover.
Reading the whole document because the parser did
A DOCTYPE is not inert. If your parser resolves external entities, pasting an untrusted document is enough to read a file or call an internal URL. The XXE Risk Checker shows what a document asks for; the fix is in the parser configuration.
Forgetting that attributes and elements are not interchangeable
`<id>1</id>` and `id="1"` mean different things to every schema and every XPath. When converting to CSV or YAML the distinction is preserved (`@id`), because flattening it away is the change that costs an afternoon later.
Frequently asked questions
Why not just use a regular expression?
Because `<!--` inside a CDATA section or a comment-looking string would be deleted. A pattern cannot tell a comment from text that looks like one without parsing the document — which is exactly what this tool does.
Are comments ever load-bearing?
Occasionally. A comment can carry an instruction for a downstream tool, or be the only note explaining why a field exists. Strip comments from a copy for transport, keep the annotated original in review.
Does it remove the XML declaration?
No. The declaration is a processing instruction in form but it tells the parser how to read the bytes; removing it would change how the file is interpreted. Other processing instructions are optional and off by default.