PHP SimpleXML Parser

SimpleXML is an extension for PHP that makes it easy to work with and get XML data.

Table of Contents

SimpleXML Parser

SimpleXML is a parser that works with trees.

If you know how an XML document is structured or laid out, SimpleXML makes it easy to get the name, attributes, and text of an element.

SimpleXML turns an XML document into a data structure like a collection of arrays and objects that you can iterate through.

SimpleXML needs less lines of code than DOM or the Expat parser to read text data from an element.

Installation

Since PHP 5, the SimpleXML functions have been built into the core of PHP. You don’t have to install anything to use these functions.

Read From String in PHP SimpleXML

XML data can be read from a string using the PHP simplexml load string() function.

Let’s say we have a variable with XML data in it, like this:

$testXMLvar =
“<?xml version=’1.0′ encoding=’UTF-8′?>
<example>
<to>Ram</to>
<from>Shyam</from>
<heading>Message</heading>
<body>Lets do tracking this weekend!</body>
</example>”;

The example below shows how to use the simplexml load string() function to get XML data from a string:

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<?php

$testXMLvar =
“<?xml version=’1.0′ encoding=’UTF-8′?>
<example>
<to>Ram</to>
<from>Shyam</from>
<heading>Message</heading>
<body>Lets do tracking this weekend!</body>
</example>”;

$xml=simplexml_load_string($testXMLvar ) or die(“Error: create object faild”);
print_r($xml);
?>

</body>
</html>