PHP Simple XML to get Nodes based on their attribute

Question

I have created an XML file that has a structured list of franchises. Problem is that I want to grab a franchise by it's id without having to iterate throughout the whole list.

This is how I can get the attributes of the first franchise. But I want to fetch back a franchise object with an id of say '3'. I would of thought that the id would be the key but it isn't, see below:

SimpleXMLElement Object ( [@attributes] => Array ( [id] => 1 [name] => Franchise 1 [aid] => ) )

Here is how I access the first franchises attributes, but this isn't very helpful to me.

$this->xmlData->franchises->franchise->attributes()

Here is the structure of the xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <data> <franchises> <franchise id="1" name="Franchise 1" > <header> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </header> <used-list> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </used-list> <used-detail> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </used-detail> <contact-us> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </contact-us> <new-detail> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </new-detail> <left-column> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </left-column> <new-list> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </new-list> <offer-detail> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </offer-detail> <popup> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </popup> </franchise> <franchise id="2" name="Franchise 2" > <header> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </header> <used-list> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </used-list> <used-detail> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </used-detail> <contact-us> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </contact-us> <new-detail> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </new-detail> <left-column> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </left-column> <new-list> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </new-list> <offer-detail> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </offer-detail> <popup> <accountId>2354435435</accountId> </popup> </franchise> </franchises> </data>

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Gildas Ross · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-26 14:45:14Z

2

Look at xpath. You can retrieve a specific node by attribute like this :

$result = $xml->xpath("//franchises/franchise[@id='2']");

answered Mar 26, 2014 at 14:45

Gildas Ross

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2 Comments

SMKS Over a year ago

Does that involve all child elements? If so that would be grrreat

Gildas Ross Over a year ago

Yes, $result = $xml->xpath("//franchises/franchise[@id='2']"); return a SimpleXMLElement Object with all of childs nodes of your query result.

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