simplexml_import_dom

(PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

simplexml_import_domGet a SimpleXMLElement object from an XML or HTML node

Description

simplexml_import_dom(object $node, ?string $class_name = SimpleXMLElement::class): ?SimpleXMLElement

This function takes a node of a DOM document and makes it into a SimpleXML node. This new object can then be used as a native SimpleXML element.

Parameters

node

A DOM Element node

class_name

You may use this optional parameter so that simplexml_import_dom() will return an object of the specified class. That class should extend the SimpleXMLElement class.

Return Values

Returns a SimpleXMLElement or null on failure.

Errors/Exceptions

Throws a TypeError when passed a non-XML or non-HTML node.

Changelog

Version Description
8.4.0 This function now throws a TypeError instead of a ValueError when passed a non-XML or non-HTML node.

Examples

Example #1 Importing DOM

<?php
$dom
= new DOMDocument;
$dom->loadXML('<books><book><title>blah</title></book></books>');
if (!
$dom) {
echo
'Error while parsing the document';
exit;
}

$s = simplexml_import_dom($dom);

echo
$s->book[0]->title;
?>

The above example will output:

blah

See Also

add a note

User Contributed Notes 3 notes

up
-1
paul dot allsopp at digital-pig dot com
1 year ago
Why not just:
simplexml_import_dom(dom_import_simplexml($SimpleXmlNode))
up
-2
shirkaen at gmail dot com
7 years ago
/*If tags in DOM have text and some part of this text is surrounded by other tag, simple_import_dom object doesn't contain position of child tag, so rendering it back to html/xml can be a problem. Printing such a node is also peculiar. Eg.*/

//////////////////////
$text = "<body><p>Some text before <em>italic </em>and after text.</p></body>";
$dom = new DOMDocument;
$dom->loadHTML($text);
$result = simplexml_import_dom($dom);
echo $result->p;

//////////////////////
//Prints :
//Some text before and after text.

print_r($result->p);
//Prints:
//SimpleXMLElement Object ( [em] => italic )

print_r($result->p->em)
//does more or less the same:
//SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => italic )

var_dump($result->p);
//Prints:
//object(SimpleXMLElement)#8 (1) { ["em"]=> string(7) "italic " }

var_dump($result->p->em)
//object(SimpleXMLElement)#9 (1) { [0]=> string(7) "italic " }

//but
echo $result->p->em;
//prints:
//italic
up
-4
brandonkirsch at perceptionilluminates dot com
11 years ago
simplexml_import_dom() will accept DOMNodes or other SimpleXMLElements. This has a useful purpose if you are extending the SimpleXMLElement class and would prefer the xpath() method to return your class extension instead of basic SimpleXMLElements. For example:

class MySimpleXML extends SimpleXMLElement{
public function xpath($xpath){
$return = array();
$simpleXmls = parent::xpath($xpath); // run SimpleXMLElement xpath, returning an array of SimpleXMLElements
foreach($simpleXmls as $xml){
$return[] = simplexml_import_dom($xml,'MySimpleXML'); // copy SimpleXMLElement, returning as MySimpleXML instance
}
return $return;
}
}

Now I can create an instance of MySimpleXML, run an xpath, and get my results back as an array of MySimpleXML elements instead of the native SimpleXMLElement:

$mySimpleXml = new mySimpleXml('<root><node/></root>');

$array = $mySimpleXml->xpath('/root/node'); // returns array with a single MySimpleXml object
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