Get value from SimpleXMLElement Object

Question

I have something like this:

$url = "http://ws.geonames.org/findNearbyPostalCodes?country=pl&placename="; $url .= rawurlencode($city[$i]); $xml = simplexml_load_file($url); echo $url."\n"; $cityCode[] = array( 'city' => $city[$i], 'lat' => $xml->code[0]->lat, 'lng' => $xml->code[0]->lng );

It's supposed to download XML from geonames. If I do print_r($xml) I get :

SimpleXMLElement Object ( [code] => Array ( [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [postalcode] => 01-935 [name] => Warszawa [countryCode] => PL [lat] => 52.25 [lng] => 21.0 [adminCode1] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( ) [adminName1] => Mazowieckie [adminCode2] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( ) [adminName2] => Warszawa [adminCode3] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( ) [adminName3] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( ) [distance] => 0.0 )

I do as you can see $xml->code[0]->lat and it returns an object. How can i get the value?

possible duplicate of Forcing a SimpleXML Object to a string, regardless of context — hakre
– hakre, Commented Sep 28, 2014 at 10:53
2017 Update: SO no longer displays the best answer at the top. The best answer is here. — rinogo
– rinogo, Commented Jun 6, 2017 at 21:23
@rinogo You've probably accidentally clicked one of the sorting tabs at the top of the answer block. The answer you linked to has 345 votes, so shows at the top if you have sorting set to "votes". — IMSoP
– IMSoP, Commented Aug 29, 2017 at 13:49
Thanks, @IMSoP! You're right - I must have clicked "active" at some point (useful for old questions with outdated answers, btw) - good to know I need to change it back to "votes"! :) — rinogo
– rinogo, Commented Aug 29, 2017 at 18:42

Luis Melgratti · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-19 16:45:22Z

494

You have to cast simpleXML Object to a string.

$value = (string) $xml->code[0]->lat;

answered May 19, 2010 at 16:45

Luis Melgratti

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6 Comments

lsl Over a year ago

Just noticed if you json_encode the xml object and then json_decode it you get a nested stdObject to deal with, quite handy for when you're being lazy & working with simple structures :D

gcb Over a year ago

silly question, but isn't that a bug? see php.net/simplexml#95762 why you don't have to cast type on some fields but on others you have to?

user151496 Over a year ago

i can't believe this is so complicated. why would they make a class called "getName" but not "getValue"? why would they print empty string if you printed it instead of converted it manually to (string). WHY??

IMSoP Over a year ago

@user151496 Technically, the string cast isn't giving you the "value", but the "text content". But yes, a specifically-named method would be more discoverable. Once you get used to this, though, it's not actually any harder to use.

user151496 Over a year ago

i always kill at least half a day by discovering the quirks of simpleXML every time i have to get to it once in a couple of months on some projects

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sglessard · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-01 19:49:15Z

107

You can also use the magic method __toString()

$xml->code[0]->lat->__toString()

answered Sep 1, 2011 at 19:49

sglessard

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3 Comments

hakre Over a year ago

Or sprintf with the %s format. Or echo and output buffering, or or or or ...

Gem Over a year ago

How can i convert the object to XML in PHP? @sglessard

jave.web Over a year ago

@Gem you probably want some kind of serialization - see stackoverflow.com/questions/137021/php-object-as-xml-document

CoursesWeb · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-30 04:41:53Z

If you know that the value of the XML element is a float number (latitude, longitude, distance), you can use (float)

$value = (float) $xml->code[0]->lat;

Also, (int) for integer number:

$value = (int) $xml->code[0]->distance;

vladkras · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-14 01:18:58Z

17

if you don't know the value of XML Element, you can use

$value = (string) $xml->code[0]->lat; if (ctype_digit($value)) { // the value is probably an integer because consists only of digits }

It works when you need to determine if value is a number, because (string) will always return string and is_int($value) returns false

answered Aug 14, 2013 at 1:18

vladkras

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2 Comments

Talisin Over a year ago

Any way to check also for boolean other than: (string)$value == 'true' || (string)$value == 'false'?

luis.ap.uyen Over a year ago

Note that this will not always be true. It's only valid for strings with natural (positive) integers. So, they must be in a string. They must not be float nor negative, since decimal separators, minus signs, etc will be evaluated to false. So, ctype_digit would be the same as preg_match('/^\d+$/', $var) If you want to check whether it's a numeric value, including floats and negatives, use is_numeric() instead.

dazzafact · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-05 13:33:57Z

16

Quick Solution if you in hurry.

convert a Xml-Object to an array (or object),

function loadXml2Array($file,$array=true){ $xml = simplexml_load_file($file); $json_string = json_encode($xml); return json_decode($json_string, $array); }

edited Nov 5, 2022 at 13:33

answered Jan 5, 2016 at 9:15

dazzafact

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2 Comments

William Over a year ago

Converting to JSON and then back in the same context is incredibly inefficient unless you are really in a hurry. Working with objects is not hard, and if you really prefer arrays, you ought to convert the object to an array natively.

IMSoP Over a year ago

I never understand why people do this - you throw away all the features of SimpleXML, just so you can write $xml['foo'][0]['bar'][0]['@attributes']['baz'] instead of $xml->foo->bar['baz'].

Zakaria Charik · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 16:17:42Z

you can use the '{}' to access you property, and then you can do as you wish. Save it or display the content.

 $varName = $xml->{'key'};

From your example her's the code

 $filePath = __DIR__ . 'Your path '; $fileName = 'YourFilename.xml'; if (file_exists($filePath . $fileName)) { $xml = simplexml_load_file($filePath . $fileName); $mainNode = $xml->{'code'}; $cityArray = array(); foreach ($mainNode as $key => $data) { $cityArray[..] = $mainNode[$key]['cityCode']; .... } }

There's no need to use {} unless there are special characters like hyphens in there. $xml->{'key'} is just an uglier way of writing $xml->key.
Exactly :p Its different, if you'd have it in some dynamic way, then you could use $xml->{$dynamicKey}

pal4life · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-01 23:39:56Z

This is the function that has always helped me convert the xml related values to array

function _xml2array ( $xmlObject, $out = array () ){ foreach ( (array) $xmlObject as $index => $node ) $out[$index] = ( is_object ( $node ) ) ? _xml2array ( $node ) : $node; return $out; }

This will throw away, or break with, among other things: any attributes, anything in a namespace, any CDATA blocks. All just so you can lose the convenience methods which SimpleXML offered you in the first place.

Bendeberia · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-07 13:39:52Z

try current($xml->code[0]->lat)

it returns element under current pointer of array, which is 0, so you will get value

Şahin Solmaz · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-13 11:29:58Z

header("Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf8"); $url = simplexml_load_file("http://URI.com"); foreach ($url->PRODUCT as $product) { foreach($urun->attributes() as $k => $v) { echo $k." : ".$v.' <br />'; } echo '<hr/>'; }

This answer is lacking any explanation, and therefore misses the key insight which is that echo forces $v to become a string rather than an object, just as (string)$v would.

nixis · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-12 14:29:25Z

1

you can convert array with this function

function xml2array($xml){ $arr = array(); foreach ($xml->children() as $r) { $t = array(); if(count($r->children()) == 0) { $arr[$r->getName()] = strval($r); } else { $arr[$r->getName()][] = xml2array($r); } } return $arr; }

answered Aug 12, 2015 at 14:29

nixis

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3 Comments

IMSoP Over a year ago

You can, but why would you want to?

nixis Over a year ago

Because if index is a number, it may be a problem. Like this $variable->code->0 ? SimpleXMLElement Object ( [code] => Array ( [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object (...

IMSoP Over a year ago

<0> is not a valid XML tag, so that would never happen. A few valid XML names are not valid PHP names, like <foo-bar>, but that can be handled with ->{'foo-bar'} syntax. Or do you just mean accessing the 0th element in a list of similar named elements? That's just $parent->childName[0].

craned · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-29 16:14:29Z

0

$codeZero = null; foreach ($xml->code->children() as $child) { $codeZero = $child; } $lat = null; foreach ($codeZero->children() as $child) { if (isset($child->lat)) { $lat = $child->lat; } }

answered Jan 29, 2016 at 16:14

craned

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9 Comments

IMSoP Over a year ago

I'm not sure what this code snippet is trying to show, but it looks like it's a very convoluted (and wrong) way of writing $codeZero = $xml->code[0] and $lat = $xml->code[0]->lat

craned Over a year ago

@IMSoP, you're voting this down without even trying the code? I wouldn't have posted it if it didn't work. You're suggestion doesn't allow for a foreach, which is cleaner than a simple for loop. I don't remember all the details anymore, but it worked when other solutions didn't.

IMSoP Over a year ago

I voted down mostly because it has no explanation of what it's doing. If even you don't understand it when you read it back, how is it supposed to be useful to anybody else? As for using a foreach, sure you can: foreach ( $xml->code as $code ) { $lat = (string)$code->lat; echo $lat; } But what you're looping over here is "all the children of the first <code> element"; which doesn't make much sense to me. To clarify, $xml->code->children() is shorthand for $xml->code[0]->children(), not "children called code".

craned Over a year ago

@IMSoP, Well, that's a fair point. I should have provided an explanation; it probably seemed so obvious to me at the time that it didn't occur to me. However, in my favor, at least, is the fact that whoever is on this page already knows the context and won't need an explanation because they already know what's happening. This is proven by the fact that one person already up-voted my answer or I would now be in the negative. I will do better at posting an explanation in the future.

craned Over a year ago

Also, I can almost guarantee I would have tried your suggestion first, and it didn't work so I had to find another.

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Antony · Accepted Answer · 2024-10-08 08:12:00Z

This question is quite old - I appreciate that, but I also discovered (in PHP 8.2) that you can use trim() on a SimpleXMLElement Object and whilst the input isn't technically a string, it will convert it! Not sure if that is a glitch with PHP as clearly its an object not a string but does work as of 2024.

"A glitch"? No, the SimpleXMLElement has a __toString() method since PHP 5.3, as far as the documentation is correct. And using trim() does not look related to the given problem after all

Amal Jo Antony · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-13 11:30:09Z

foreach($xml->code as $vals ) { unset($geonames); $vals=(array)$vals; foreach($vals as $key => $value) { $value=(array)$value; $geonames[$key]=$value[0]; } } print_r($geonames);

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