PHP 8.4.0 RC2 available for testing

SimpleXMLElement::children

(PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

SimpleXMLElement::childrenCherche les fils d'un nœud donné

Description

public SimpleXMLElement::children(?string $namespaceOrPrefix = null, bool $isPrefix = false): ?SimpleXMLElement

Cette méthode cherche les fils d'un élément. Le résultat suit les règles de l'itération normale.

Note: SimpleXML ajoute des propriétés itératives pour presque toutes ses méthodes. Celles-ci ne peuvent être vues en utilisant var_dump() ou tout autre fonction qui examine les objets.

Liste de paramètres

namespaceOrPrefix

Un espace de noms XML.

isPrefix

Si isPrefix vaut true, namespaceOrPrefix sera considéré comme un préfixe. S'il vaut false, namespaceOrPrefix sera considéré comme une URL vers un espace de noms.

Valeurs de retour

Retourne un élément SimpleXMLElement que le nœud possède un fils ou pas, sauf si le noeud représente un attribut, auquel cas null est retourné.

Exemples

Exemple #1 Parcours d'un pseudo-tableau children()

<?php
$xml
= new SimpleXMLElement(
'<person>
<child role="son">
<child role="daughter"/>
</child>
<child role="daughter">
<child role="son">
<child role="son"/>
</child>
</child>
</person>'
);

foreach (
$xml->children() as $second_gen) {
echo
' The person begot a ' . $second_gen['role'];

foreach (
$second_gen->children() as $third_gen) {
echo
' who begot a ' . $third_gen['role'] . ';';

foreach (
$third_gen->children() as $fourth_gen) {
echo
' and that ' . $third_gen['role'] .
' begot a ' . $fourth_gen['role'];
}
}
}
?>

L'exemple ci-dessus va afficher :

The person begot a son who begot a daughter; The person
begot a daughter who begot a son; and that son begot a son

Exemple #2 Utilisation des espaces de noms

<?php
$xml
= '<example xmlns:foo="my.foo.urn">
<foo:a>Apple</foo:a>
<foo:b>Banana</foo:b>
<c>Cherry</c>
</example>'
;

$sxe = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);

$kids = $sxe->children('foo');
var_dump(count($kids));

$kids = $sxe->children('foo', TRUE);
var_dump(count($kids));

$kids = $sxe->children('my.foo.urn');
var_dump(count($kids));

$kids = $sxe->children('my.foo.urn', TRUE);
var_dump(count($kids));

$kids = $sxe->children();
var_dump(count($kids));
?>
int(0)
int(2)
int(2)
int(0)
int(1)

Voir aussi

add a note

User Contributed Notes 15 notes

up
13
aero
17 years ago
Here's a simple, recursive, function to transform XML data into pseudo E4X syntax ie. root.child.value = foobar

<?php
error_reporting
(E_ALL);

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement(
'<Patriarch>
<name>Bill</name>
<wife>
<name>Vi</name>
</wife>
<son>
<name>Bill</name>
</son>
<daughter>
<name>Jeri</name>
<husband>
<name>Mark</name>
</husband>
<son>
<name>Greg</name>
</son>
<son>
<name>Tim</name>
</son>
<son>
<name>Mark</name>
</son>
<son>
<name>Josh</name>
<wife>
<name>Kristine</name>
</wife>
<son>
<name>Blake</name>
</son>
<daughter>
<name>Liah</name>
</daughter>
</son>
</daughter>
</Patriarch>'
);

RecurseXML($xml);

function
RecurseXML($xml,$parent="")
{
$child_count = 0;
foreach(
$xml as $key=>$value)
{
$child_count++;
if(
RecurseXML($value,$parent.".".$key) == 0) // no childern, aka "leaf node"
{
print(
$parent . "." . (string)$key . " = " . (string)$value . "<BR>\n");
}
}
return
$child_count;
}

?>

The output....

.name = Bill
.wife.name = Vi
.son.name = Bill
.daughter.name = Jeri
.daughter.husband.name = Mark
.daughter.son.name = Greg
.daughter.son.name = Tim
.daughter.son.name = Mark
.daughter.son.name = Josh
.daughter.son.wife.name = Kristine
.daughter.son.son.name = Blake
.daughter.son.daughter.name = Liah
up
7
Sebastian
18 years ago
Just a quick addition:

If you need to access a child node which contains a dash, you need to encapsulate it with {""}.

For example:
<?php
foreach ($domain->domain-listing as $product) {
}
?>

The example above doesn't work because of the dash. But instead you need to use:
<?php
foreach ($domain->{"domain-listing"} as $product) {
}
?>

At least for me the second example works perfectly fine.
up
2
transglobe at gmx dot de
16 years ago
I made a slightly differnt approch towards the RecurseXML function. Beeing hungry I had problems with the code, as it did just overwrite two <maincourse>s. So here is what I did:

<?php

$xml
= new SimpleXMLElement(
'<meal>
<type>Lunch</type>
<time>12:30</time>
<menu>
<entree>salad</entree>
<maincourse>
<part>ships</part>
<part>steak</part>
</maincourse>
<maincourse>
<part>fisch</part>
<part>rice</part>
</maincourse>
<maincourse>
<part>wine</part>
<part>cheese</part>
</maincourse>
</menu>
</meal>'
);

$vals = array();
RecurseXML($xml,$vals);

foreach(
$vals as $key=>$value)
print(
"{$key} = {$value}<BR>\n");

function
RecurseXML($xml,&$vals,$parent="") {

$childs=0;
$child_count=-1; # Not realy needed.
$arr=array();
foreach (
$xml->children() as $key=>$value) {
if (
in_array($key,$arr)) {
$child_count++;
} else {
$child_count=0;
}
$arr[]=$key;
$k=($parent == "") ? "$key.$child_count" : "$parent.$key.$child_count";
$childs=RecurseXML($value,$vals,$k);
if (
$childs==0) {
$vals[$k]= (string)$value;
}
}

return
$childs;
}

?>
Output is like this:
type.0 = Lunch
time.0 = 12:30
menu.0.entree.0 = salad
menu.0.maincourse.0.part.0 = ships
menu.0.maincourse.0.part.1 = steak
menu.0.maincourse.0 =
menu.0.maincourse.1.part.0 = fisch
menu.0.maincourse.1.part.1 = rice
menu.0.maincourse.1 =
menu.0.maincourse.2.part.0 = wine
menu.0.maincourse.2.part.1 = cheese
menu.0.maincourse.2 =
menu.0 =

(Not beautiful, but it solved my case...)
up
0
boan dot web at outlook dot com
5 years ago
SimpleXMLElement::children can return null in this case:

<?php
$xml
= '
<root attr="Hello"/>
'
;

$sxe = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);

$sxe_xpath = $sxe->xpath('/root/@attr')[0];

$children = $sxe_xpath->children();

var_export($children); // Is null
?>
up
0
Anonymous
13 years ago
Here's my xml-to-array routine. Unlike many of the other comments here, this one takes namespaces into account.

<?php

class XmlArray {

public function
load_dom ($xml) {
$node=simplexml_import_dom($xml);
return
$this->add_node($node);
}

public function
load_string ($s) {
$node=simplexml_load_string($s);
return
$this->add_node($node);
}

private function
add_node ($node, &$parent=null, $namespace='', $recursive=false) {

$namespaces = $node->getNameSpaces(true);
$content="$node";

$r['name']=$node->getName();
if (!
$recursive) {
$tmp=array_keys($node->getNameSpaces(false));
$r['namespace']=$tmp[0];
$r['namespaces']=$namespaces;
}
if (
$namespace) $r['namespace']=$namespace;
if (
$content) $r['content']=$content;

foreach (
$namespaces as $pre=>$ns) {
foreach (
$node->children($ns) as $k=>$v) {
$this->add_node($v, $r['children'], $pre, true);
}
foreach (
$node->attributes($ns) as $k=>$v) {
$r['attributes'][$k]="$pre:$v";
}
}
foreach (
$node->children() as $k=>$v) {
$this->add_node($v, $r['children'], '', true);
}
foreach (
$node->attributes() as $k=>$v) {
$r['attributes'][$k]="$v";
}

$parent[]=&$r;
return
$parent[0];

}

}

?>
up
0
Andrew Rose (rose dot andrew at gmail dot com)
19 years ago
The example below shows the basic use of depth-first recursion to span the xml tree.

This is coded for the command line, and it prints out the original sentance above and then the copy cat sentence it creates itself for comparison, which as you will see; this example is slightly off from, I'll leave it upto you to resolve this issue.

All in all I personaly think xml and recursion go hand in hand, so if you don't understand recursion but know xml and want to use php to manipulate xml you will need to learn about recursion at some point.

<?php
$xml
= simplexml_load_string(
'<person>
<child role="son">
<child role="daughter"/>
</child>
<child role="daughter">
<child role="son">
<child role="son"/>
</child>
</child>
</person>'
);

function
recurse($child)
{
foreach(
$child->children() as $children) {
echo
' who begot a '.$children['role'];
recurse($children);
}
return;
}

foreach(
$xml->children() as $children) {
echo
'The person begot a '.$children['role'];
recurse($children, 0);
echo
'; ';
}

echo
"\n";
echo
'The person begot a son who begot a daughter; The person begot a daughter who begot a son; and that son begot a son'."\n";

?>
up
-1
mrdaniellee at live dot com
14 years ago
use this If you want to view the HTML as well as data.

normal dumps display the parsed versions of HTML.
This code displays the HTML as Text in a Text Area, and also display all other a data along side as an array

perfect for debugging (xml with html).

Try This Code:

<?php
$xml
= simplexml_load_file($url);

function
xml2array_parse($xml){
foreach (
$xml->children() as $parent => $child){
$return["$parent"] = xml2array_parse($child)?xml2array_parse($child):"$child";
}
return
$return;
}

print
"<pre><textarea style=\"width:200%;height:100%;\">";
print_r(xml2array_parse($xml));
print
"</textarea></pre>";
?>
up
-1
Anonymous
16 years ago
for XML namespaces such as <dc:creator> in RSS feeds use

<?php
$xml
= new SimpleXMLElement($string);
$item = $xml->channel[0]->item[0];
$dc = $item->children("http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/");
echo
$dc->creator;
?>
up
-1
coldshine1 at rambler dot ru
13 years ago
This is my recursive simple function to parse XML with attributes.

<?php
function ParseXML($node, &$parent=array(), $only_child=true) {

//Current node name
$node_name = $node->getName();

//Let's count children
$only_child = true;
if(
$node->count() > 1 ) $only_child = false;

//If there is no child, then there may be text data
if($only_child){
$content="$node";
if (
strlen($content)>0) $parent['content']=$content;
}

//Get attributes of current node
foreach ($node->attributes() as $k=>$v) {
$parent['@attributes'][$k]="$v";
}

//Get children
$count = 0;
foreach (
$node->children() as $child_name=>$child_node) {
if(!
$only_child) //If there are siblings then we'll add node to the end of the array
LGServerPVR::ParseXML($child_node, $parent[$node_name][$child_name][$count], $only_child);
else
LGServerPVR::ParseXML($child_node, $parent[$node_name][$child_name], $only_child);
$count++;
}

return
$parent;
//(c) c01d[s]h!nE 10.12.2010
}

?>
up
-2
thetazzbot at gmail dot com
13 years ago
Ok so say you have this xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!DOCTYPE nitf
PUBLIC "-//IPTC-NAA//DTD NITF 3.1//EN"
"http://www.nitf.org/site/nitf-documentation/nitf-3-1.dtd">
<nitf>
<head>
<docdata management-status="embargoed">
<!--data/2011/08/23/parties/doc4e53aa5783cca930694817.txt-->
<doc-id id-string="doc4e53aa5783cca930694817"/>
<date.release norm="20110823T000000"/>
<key-list/>
</docdata>
<pubdata type="web" position.section="parties" position.sequence="0"/>
</head>

-- snip --

If you need to access the nodes named "like.this" such as the date.release above, here is how I did it:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xhtml);
echo (string)$xml->head->docdata->{"date.release"}["norm"];

Took me a while to figure that one out ;)
up
-2
no-one
19 years ago
For anyone who hasn't read Sterling Hughe's article (http://www.zend.com/php5/articles/php5-simplexml.php):

<?php
$xml_document
=<<<EOT
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root xmlns:foo="http://example.com">
<foo:bar>baz</foo:bar>
</root>
EOT;

$xml_document = simplexml_load_xml($xml_document);

$foo_ns_bar = $xml_document->children('http://example.com');

echo
$foo_ns_bar->bar[0]; // prints 'baz'
?>
up
-2
rodmen at gmail dot com
15 years ago
Transform xml to array php

<?php
function xml2phpArray($xml,$arr){
$iter = 0;
foreach(
$xml->children() as $b){
$a = $b->getName();
if(!
$b->children()){
$arr[$a] = trim($b[0]);
}
else{
$arr[$a][$iter] = array();
$arr[$a][$iter] = xml2phpArray($b,$arr[$a][$iter]);
}
$iter++;
}
return
$arr;
}

$Array = simplexml_load_string(file_get_contents('myfile.xml'));
print_r(xml2phpArray($Array,array()));
?>
up
-2
taylorbarstow at that google mail thingy
18 years ago
Sometimes you actually want an array, not a pseudo array. This is especially true when you aren't dealing with attributes (i.e., you just want the array of child nodes).

Do like this:

<?php
$children
= $sxml->xpath('child::node()');
?>

The reason you might want this is to be able to use array functions like array_shift, array_pop, etc. This is especially true when you are writing recursive functions. Simplexml works really well in iterative programming, but if you try to implement recursion it gets ugly.
up
-5
crescentfreshpot at yahoo dot com
16 years ago
Just a warning that the iterable returned from children() contains the '@attributes' key, which is "invisible" during a foreach but can be seen if using a different construct, such as list()=each() or casting to an array before iterating w/ foreach.
up
-4
zyxwvu at users dot sourceforge dot net
20 years ago
File:

<category>
<item>text</item>
<bold>text</bold>
<item>text</item>
<item>text</item>
<mark>text</mark>
<bold>text</bold>
</category>

If you want to get also names of the tags, you can use this loop layout:

<?php
foreach($category -> children() as $name => $node){
echo
$name.'<br/>';
}
?>
To Top