81

Let's say I have some XML like this

<channel> <item> <title>This is title 1</title> </item> </channel>

The code below does what I want in that it outputs the title as a string

$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstring); echo $xml->channel->item->title;

Here's my problem. The code below doesn't treat the title as a string in that context so I end up with a SimpleXML object in the array instead of a string.

$foo = array( $xml->channel->item->title );

I've been working around it like this

$foo = array( sprintf("%s",$xml->channel->item->title) );

but that seems ugly.

What's the best way to force a SimpleXML object to a string, regardless of context?

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1
  • I've submitted multiple requests to PHP to implement something similar to SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS for this, and would encourage others to do the same. SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS forces elements that /could/ hold more than one string to be parsed always as just strings. Of course as others mentioned you need to know what you're getting back, but time and time again I've run into issues with .NET SOAP servers that the WSDL for ( by .NET's "magic" defaults ) prototyped every string as either mixed or an array of strings. Instead of current()'ing or typecasting, the bit just gives back a string Commented Dec 9, 2017 at 20:37

11 Answers 11

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155

Typecast the SimpleXMLObject to a string:

$foo = array( (string) $xml->channel->item->title );

The above code internally calls __toString() on the SimpleXMLObject. This method is not publicly available, as it interferes with the mapping scheme of the SimpleXMLObject, but it can still be invoked in the above manner.

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6 Comments

That's cleaner than using a sprintf. I like it
Note that using a function that accepts string arguments will automatically do this type casting (e.g. echo, str_replace, substr).
$foo = (string) $xml->channel->item->title; is what I was looking for, since I don't need an array. Thanks.
+100 you just made my evening! Im new to SimpleXMLObject the vars I had extracted from it were 'printing' fine to the screen but failing my DB query...sigh! Since when was PHP strictly typed? ;-)
@megaSteve4 "Since when was PHP strictly typed?" - it's precisely because it's not that this needs to happen: most functions don't have a defined type context, so cannot implicitly cast to that type. Of course, they can explicitly cast their input params, which is why substr et al work. It's safer to do the cast as early as possible though, so you know all functions will see the data they expect.
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23

You can use the PHP function

strval();

This function returns the string values of the parameter passed to it.

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1 Comment

@Mark Biek: It does work on objects that have __toString() implemented and especially in this questions case in specific, it works very well with objects of type SimpleXMLElement. You can compare it with the string cast in the accepted answer. strval() is a handy callback function often in conjunction with array_map() and iterator_to_array($simpleXMLElement, false) or SimpleXMLElement::xpath().
9

There is native SimpleXML method SimpleXMLElement::asXML Depending on parameter it writes SimpleXMLElement to xml 1.0 file or just to a string:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($string); $validfilename = '/temp/mylist.xml'; $xml->asXML($validfilename); // to a file echo $xml->asXML(); // to a string
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3 Comments

I get call to an undefined function asXML so I'm guessing this is out of date now?
@Eoin Hmm... Just tested my example, it's still works fine with native php 7.3 installation
I must have had a different problem them. My apologies. I fixed my issue now :)
3

Another ugly way to do it:

$foo = array( $xml->channel->item->title."" );

It works, but it's not pretty.

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3

The accepted answer actually returns an array containing a string, which isn't exactly what OP requested (a string). To expand on that answer, use:

$foo = [ (string) $xml->channel->item->title ][0];

Which returns the single element of the array, a string.

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2

To get XML data into a php array you do this:

// this gets all the outer levels into an associative php array $header = array(); foreach($xml->children() as $child) { $header[$child->getName()] = sprintf("%s", $child); } echo "<pre>\n"; print_r($header); echo "</pre>";

To get a childs child then just do this:

$data = array(); foreach($xml->data->children() as $child) { $header[$child->getName()] = sprintf("%s", $child); } echo "<pre>\n"; print_r($data); echo "</pre>";

You can expand $xml-> through each level until you get what you want You can also put all the nodes into one array without the levels or just about any other way you want it.

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2

Not sure if they changed the visibility of the __toString() method since the accepted answer was written but at this time it works fine for me:

var_dump($xml->channel->item->title->__toString());

OUTPUT:

string(15) "This is title 1"
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1

Try strval($xml->channel->item->title)

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0

There is native SimpleXML method SimpleXMLElement::asXML Depending on parameter it writes SimpleXMLElement to xml 1.0 file, Yes 

$get_file= read file from path; $itrate1=$get_file->node; $html = $itrate1->richcontent->html; echo $itrate1->richcontent->html->body->asXML(); print_r((string) $itrate1->richcontent->html->body->asXML());
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0

Just put the ''. before any variable, it will convert into string.

$foo = array( ''. $xml->channel->item->title );

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-1

The following is a recursive function that will typecast all single-child elements to a String:

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // FUNCTION - CLEAN SIMPLE XML OBJECT ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// function cleanSimpleXML($xmlObject = ''){ // LOOP CHILDREN foreach ($xmlObject->children() as $child) { // IF CONTAINS MULTIPLE CHILDREN if(count($child->children()) > 1 ){ // RECURSE $child = cleanSimpleXML($child); }else{ // CAST $child = (string)$child; } } // RETURN CLEAN OBJECT return $xmlObject; } // END FUNCTION
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