Quite similar to the previously described syntax of EDIFACT messages and their underlying segments and data elements is the XML format. As in the EDIFACT segments, a XML tag basically contains a data element.
For more information about XML take a look at http://www.w3c.org.
The main difference to EDIFACT segments, except the syntax, is the option to have unlimited nesting levels by grouping the data elements in other tags. Additionally, each tag can be endorsed by attributes, which mostly used to describe the transported data itself (such as the used date format etc.).
But basically, in common with EDIFACT is that there are data fields containing the data.