SimpleXMLElement::xpath
Here's a simple function to convert an XML string to an array -
<?php
// PHP5.3 and above only
function parse($str) {
$f = function($iter) {
foreach($iter as $key=>$val)
$arr[$key][] = ($iter->hasChildren())?
call_user_func (__FUNCTION__, $val)
: strval($val);
return $arr;
};
return $f(new SimpleXmlIterator($str, null));
}
?>
PHP 5.2 and below do not have anonymous functions.
But you can create a helper function to achieve the same thing -
<?php
function parse($str) {
return parseHelper(new SimpleXmlIterator($str, null));
}
function parseHelper($iter) {
foreach($iter as $key=>$val)
$arr[$key][] = ($iter->hasChildren())?
call_user_func (__FUNCTION__, $val)
: strval($val);
return $arr;
}
?>
Using it is straightforward enough -
<?php
$xml = '
<movies>
<movie>abcd</movie>
<movie>efgh</movie>
<movie>hijk</movie>
</movies>';
var_dump(parse($xml));
?>
This will output -
array
'movie' =>
array
0 => string 'abcd' (length=4)
1 => string 'efgh' (length=4)
2 => string 'hijk' (length=4)
The SimpleXMLIterator class
(PHP 5 >= 5.1.0)
Introduction
The SimpleXMLIterator provides recursive iteration over all nodes of a SimpleXMLElement object.
Class synopsis
SimpleXMLIterator
extends
SimpleXMLElement
implements
RecursiveIterator
,
Traversable
,
Iterator
,
Countable
{
/* Methods */
/* Inherited methods */
final public SimpleXMLElement::__construct
( string
$data
[, int $options = 0
[, bool $data_is_url = false
[, string $ns = ""
[, bool $is_prefix = false
]]]] )
public void SimpleXMLElement::addAttribute
( string
$name
[, string $value
[, string $namespace
]] )
public SimpleXMLElement SimpleXMLElement::addChild
( string
$name
[, string $value
[, string $namespace
]] )
public SimpleXMLElement SimpleXMLElement::attributes
([ string
}$ns = NULL
[, bool $is_prefix = false
]] )Table of Contents
- SimpleXMLIterator::current — Returns the current element
- SimpleXMLIterator::getChildren — Returns the sub-elements of the current element
- SimpleXMLIterator::hasChildren — Checks whether the current element has sub elements.
- SimpleXMLIterator::key — Return current key
- SimpleXMLIterator::next — Move to next element
- SimpleXMLIterator::rewind — Rewind to the first element
- SimpleXMLIterator::valid — Check whether the current element is valid
add a note
User Contributed Notes
SimpleXMLIterator
ajnsit dot NOSPAM at gmail dot com
17-Mar-2011 10:14
ratfactor at gmail dot com
19-Jul-2009 05:08
The documentation is a bit sparse for SimpleXmlIterator. Here is an example showing the use of its methods. xml2Array and sxiToArray work together to convert an XML document to an associative array structure.
The contents of cats.xml:
======================================
<cats>
<cat>
<name>Jack</name>
<age>2</age>
<color>grey</color>
<color>white</color>
</cat>
<cat>
<name>Maxwell</name>
<age>12</age>
<color>orange</color>
<color>black</color>
</cat>
</cats>
======================================
<?php
function xml2array($fname){
$sxi = new SimpleXmlIterator($fname, null, true);
return sxiToArray($sxi);
}
function sxiToArray($sxi){
$a = array();
for( $sxi->rewind(); $sxi->valid(); $sxi->next() ) {
if(!array_key_exists($sxi->key(), $a)){
$a[$sxi->key()] = array();
}
if($sxi->hasChildren()){
$a[$sxi->key()][] = sxiToArray($sxi->current());
}
else{
$a[$sxi->key()][] = strval($sxi->current());
}
}
return $a;
}
// Read cats.xml and print the results:
$catArray = xml2array('cats.xml');
print_r($catArray);
?>
Results (reformatted a bit for compactness and clarity):
======================================
Array(
[cat] => Array(
[0] => Array(
[name] => Array( [0] => Jack )
[age] => Array( [0] => 2 )
[color] => Array( [0] => grey,
[1] => white )
)
[1] => Array(
[name] => Array( [0] => Maxwell )
[age] => Array( [0] => 12 )
[color] => Array( [0] => orange
[1] => black )
)
)
)
David Lanstein
17-Jan-2009 06:40
Unlike the DirectoryIterator, for one, you'll need to call $it->rewind() before using the iterator in a for() or while() loop. Calling foreach() does rewind the iterator before iteration.