misformatted

Misformatted is an adjective used to describe data, documents, or inputs that do not conform to a required format or specification. In computing and publishing, misformatted content can be difficult to parse, render, or validate, and may cause errors downstream.

Common contexts include JSON, XML, CSV, code blocks, dates, and tables. Examples: a JSON object with a trailing comma, a CSV file where rows have inconsistent field counts, an HTML table without proper tags, a date string that does not match the expected format, or a YAML file with incorrect indentation.

Causes and effects: human error, software bugs, encoding mismatches, inconsistent newline conventions (CRLF vs LF), or locale differences. Consequences include parsing failures, data corruption, display glitches, or misrendered documents.

Detection and correction: validators, schema validation, linters, pretty-printers, and editors with real-time feedback. Corrective steps include standardizing format, converting encodings, fixing delimiters, or re-serializing data according to a specification.

Related terms include ill-formatted, poorly formatted, malformed, and unformatted. Misformatting can occur across disciplines, from software development and data exchange to document preparation, and is typically addressed through validation, adherence to standards, and automated formatting tools.