Attribute Value Selection in SimpleXML

Question

Why can't I filter results on the attribute value rather than the index?

Something like this fails.

foreach ($portfolio->clientGroup[$id]->client['name=foo']->src as $src) { echo $src . '<br />'; }

But this works.

foreach ($portfolio->clientGroup[$id]->client[0]->src as $src) { echo $src . '<br />'; }

X-Ref: SimpleXML: Selecting Elements Which Have A Certain Attribute Value (Jun 2009) — hakre
– hakre, Commented Jul 9, 2013 at 9:43

phihag · Accepted Answer · 2009-02-15 17:33:00Z

2

This does not work because SimpleXML is a lightweight implementation. Plus, you can't assume anything to work unless you have a specification.

You are looking for the xpath function of SimpleXMLElement objects, i.e.:

foreach ($portfolio->clientGroup[$id]->xpath("client[@name='foo']/src") as $src) { echo $src . '<br />'; }

answered Feb 15, 2009 at 17:33

phihag

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3 Comments

Tomalak Over a year ago

Counter question: Are you sure that "name" isn't a child of <client>, instead of an attribute?

phihag Over a year ago

Yes ("Why can't I filter results on the attribute value rather than the index?")

Tomalak Over a year ago

Oops. Seems my browser font is too small. ;-) Whatever, I added an XPath expression for both cases to my answer. FWIW, +1 from me. Your answer was a few seconds faster than mine anyway.

Tomalak · Accepted Answer · 2009-02-15 17:56:45Z

SimpleXML provides access to your document in form of a nested array. There is no way to place an XPath expression as the array index.

Try something like:

$query = "client[@name='foo']/src"; // if name is an attribute $query = "client[name='foo']/src"; // if name is a child element foreach ($portfolio->clientGroup[$id]->xpath($query) as $src ) { echo $src . '<br />'; }

Are you sure that "name" selects an attribute? Afaik, you need to prefix the name with an "@" sign.
The darn editor uses the "@" sign as some kind of shortcut for "Blockquote" or such. Everytime I press "@", it starts a new line, and I am forced to create the "@" somewhere else and copy/paste it in. Frustrating. Managed to get it wrong here.

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