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SimpleXMLElement::__construct> <SimpleXMLElement::attributes
Last updated: Fri, 20 Nov 2009

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SimpleXMLElement::children

(PHP 5 >= 5.0.1)

SimpleXMLElement::childrenFinds children of given node

Description

SimpleXMLElement children ([ string $ns [, bool $is_prefix ]] )

This method finds the children of the element of which it is a member. The result follows normal iteration rules.

Note: SimpleXML has made a rule of adding iterative properties to most methods. They cannot be viewed using var_dump() or anything else which can examine objects.

Parameters

ns

is_prefix

Default to FALSE

Return Values

Changelog

Version Description
5.2.0 The optional parameter is_prefix was added.

Examples

Example #1 Traversing a children() pseudo-array

<?php
$xml 
= new SimpleXMLElement(
'<person>
 <child role="son">
  <child role="daughter"/>
 </child>
 <child role="daughter">
  <child role="son">
   <child role="son"/>
  </child>
 </child>
</person>'
);

foreach (
$xml->children() as $second_gen) {
    echo 
' The person begot a ' $second_gen['role'];

    foreach (
$second_gen->children() as $third_gen) {
        echo 
' who begot a ' $third_gen['role'] . ';';

        foreach (
$third_gen->children() as $fourth_gen) {
            echo 
' and that ' $third_gen['role'] .
                
' begot a ' $fourth_gen['role'];
        }
    }
}
?>

The above example will output:

The person begot a son who begot a daughter; The person
begot a daughter who begot a son; and that son begot a son



add a note add a note User Contributed Notes
SimpleXMLElement::children
rodmen at gmail dot com
21-May-2009 03:32
Transform xml to array php

<?php
function xml2phpArray($xml,$arr){
   
$iter = 0;
        foreach(
$xml->children() as $b){
               
$a = $b->getName();
                if(!
$b->children()){
                       
$arr[$a] = trim($b[0]);
                }
                else{
                       
$arr[$a][$iter] = array();
                       
$arr[$a][$iter] = xml2phpArray($b,$arr[$a][$iter]);
                }
       
$iter++;
        }
        return
$arr;
}

$Array = simplexml_load_string(file_get_contents('myfile.xml'));
print_r(xml2phpArray($Array,array()));
?>
G dot B dot Yahav at Gmail dot com
25-Mar-2009 06:26
I done a very nice function to run over the XML element recursivly with SimpleXML, and print it on the screen

here it is:

<?php

$xml_han
= new SimpleXMLElement( "data.xml", null, true );

print
RecursiveXML( $xml_han );
function
RecursiveXML( SimpleXMLElement $han, $preffix = "")
{
    if(
count( $han->children() ) < 1 )
    {
        return
$preffix . "&lt;" . $han->getName() . warpAttributes( $han->attributes() ) . "&gt;&nbsp;" . $han . "&nbsp;&lt;/" . $han->getName() . "&gt;<br />";
    }
   
   
$ret = $preffix . "&lt;" . $han->getName() . warpAttributes( $han->attributes() ) . "&gt;<br />";
    foreach(
$han->children() as $key => $child )
    {
       
$ret .= RecursiveXML($child , $preffix . "|--&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;" );
    }
    return
$ret;
}

?>

enjoy :)
hoseinnj at google&#39;s great mail dot com
19-Mar-2009 07:25
Quick easy way to turn objectified SimpleXMLElement data into an array.

<?php
function get_xml_from_some_source(){
//blah blah blah build cUrl
$data = @curl_exec($ch);
$newdata = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
$new = xml2array_parse($newdata);
}

function
xml2array_parse($xml){
     foreach (
$xml->children() as $parent => $child){
        
$return["$parent"] = xml2array_parse($child)?xml2array_parse($child):"$child";
     }
     return
$return;
 }
?>

My first post, be nice.  ;-)
Anonymous
06-Sep-2008 12:39
for XML namespaces such as <dc:creator> in RSS feeds use

<?php
    $xml
= new SimpleXMLElement($string);
   
$item = $xml->channel[0]->item[0];
   
$dc = $item->children("http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/");
    echo
$dc->creator;
?>
transglobe at gmx dot de
19-Mar-2008 10:37
I made a slightly differnt approch towards the RecurseXML function. Beeing hungry I had problems with the code, as it did just overwrite two <maincourse>s. So here is what I did:

<?php

$xml
= new SimpleXMLElement(
'<meal>
   <type>Lunch</type>
   <time>12:30</time>
   <menu>
     <entree>salad</entree>
     <maincourse>
        <part>ships</part>
        <part>steak</part>
     </maincourse>
     <maincourse>
        <part>fisch</part>
        <part>rice</part>
     </maincourse>
     <maincourse>
        <part>wine</part>
        <part>cheese</part>
     </maincourse>
   </menu>
</meal>'
);

$vals = array();
RecurseXML($xml,$vals);

foreach(
$vals as $key=>$value)
  print(
"{$key} = {$value}<BR>\n");

function
RecurseXML($xml,&$vals,$parent="") {

 
$childs=0;
 
$child_count=-1; # Not realy needed.
 
$arr=array();
        foreach (
$xml->children() as $key=>$value) {
                if (
in_array($key,$arr)) {
                       
$child_count++;
                } else {
                       
$child_count=0;
                }
               
$arr[]=$key;
               
$k=($parent == "") ? "$key.$child_count" : "$parent.$key.$child_count";
               
$childs=RecurseXML($value,$vals,$k);
                if (
$childs==0) {
                       
$vals[$k]= (string)$value;
                }
        }

  return
$childs;
}

?>
Output is like this:
type.0 = Lunch
time.0 = 12:30
menu.0.entree.0 = salad
menu.0.maincourse.0.part.0 = ships
menu.0.maincourse.0.part.1 = steak
menu.0.maincourse.0 =
menu.0.maincourse.1.part.0 = fisch
menu.0.maincourse.1.part.1 = rice
menu.0.maincourse.1 =
menu.0.maincourse.2.part.0 = wine
menu.0.maincourse.2.part.1 = cheese
menu.0.maincourse.2 =
menu.0 =

(Not beautiful, but it solved my case...)
crescentfreshpot at yahoo dot com
10-Dec-2007 04:16
Just a warning that the iterable returned from children() contains the '@attributes' key, which is "invisible" during a foreach but can be seen if using a different construct, such as list()=each() or casting to an array before iterating w/ foreach.
aero
23-May-2007 03:07
Here's a simple, recursive, function to transform XML data into pseudo E4X syntax ie. root.child.value = foobar

<?php
error_reporting
(E_ALL);

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement(
'<Patriarch>
   <name>Bill</name>
   <wife>
     <name>Vi</name>
   </wife>
   <son>
     <name>Bill</name>
   </son>
   <daughter>
     <name>Jeri</name>
     <husband>
       <name>Mark</name>
     </husband>
     <son>
       <name>Greg</name>
     </son>
     <son>
       <name>Tim</name>
     </son>    
     <son>
       <name>Mark</name>
     </son>    
     <son>
       <name>Josh</name>
         <wife>
           <name>Kristine</name>
         </wife>
         <son>
           <name>Blake</name>
         </son>
         <daughter>
           <name>Liah</name>
         </daughter>
     </son>
   </daughter>
</Patriarch>'
);

RecurseXML($xml);

function
RecurseXML($xml,$parent="")
{
  
$child_count = 0;
   foreach(
$xml as $key=>$value)
   {
     
$child_count++;    
      if(
RecurseXML($value,$parent.".".$key) == 0// no childern, aka "leaf node"
     
{
         print(
$parent . "." . (string)$key . " = " . (string)$value . "<BR>\n");       
      }    
   }
   return
$child_count;
}

?>

The output....

.name = Bill
.wife.name = Vi
.son.name = Bill
.daughter.name = Jeri
.daughter.husband.name = Mark
.daughter.son.name = Greg
.daughter.son.name = Tim
.daughter.son.name = Mark
.daughter.son.name = Josh
.daughter.son.wife.name = Kristine
.daughter.son.son.name = Blake
.daughter.son.daughter.name = Liah
taylorbarstow at that google mail thingy
21-Apr-2006 02:38
Sometimes you actually want an array, not a pseudo array.   This is especially true when you aren't dealing with attributes (i.e., you just want the array of child nodes).

Do like this:

<?php
$children
= $sxml->xpath('child::node()');
?>

The reason you might want this is to be able to use array functions like array_shift, array_pop, etc.  This is especially true when you are writing recursive functions.  Simplexml works really well in iterative programming, but if you try to implement recursion it gets ugly.
Sebastian
27-Oct-2005 10:45
Just a quick addition:

If you need to access a child node which contains a dash, you need to encapsulate it with {""}.

For example:
<?php
foreach ($domain->domain-listing as $product) {
}
?>

The example above doesn't work because of the dash. But instead you need to use:
<?php
foreach ($domain->{"domain-listing"} as $product) {
}
?>

At least for me the second example works perfectly fine.
no-one
01-Jun-2005 01:05
For anyone who hasn't read Sterling Hughe's article (http://www.zend.com/php5/articles/php5-simplexml.php):

<?php
$xml_document
=<<<EOT
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root xmlns:foo="http://example.com">
  <foo:bar>baz</foo:bar>
</root>
EOT;

$xml_document = simplexml_load_xml($xml_document);

$foo_ns_bar = $xml_document->children('http://example.com');

echo
$foo_ns_bar->bar[0]; // prints 'baz'
?>
Andrew Rose (rose dot andrew at gmail dot com)
16-Mar-2005 12:48
The example below shows the basic use of depth-first recursion to span the xml tree.

This is coded for the command line, and it prints out the original sentance above and then the copy cat sentence it creates itself for comparison, which as you will see; this example is slightly off from, I'll leave it upto you to resolve this issue.

All in all I personaly think xml and recursion go hand in hand, so if you don't understand recursion but know xml and want to use php to manipulate xml you will need to learn about recursion at some point.

<?php
$xml
= simplexml_load_string(
'<person>
 <child role="son">
  <child role="daughter"/>
 </child>
 <child role="daughter">
  <child role="son">
   <child role="son"/>
  </child>
 </child>
</person>'
);

function
recurse($child)
 {
   foreach(
$child->children() as $children) {
     echo
' who begot a '.$children['role'];
    
recurse($children);
   }
    return;
 }

foreach(
$xml->children() as $children) {
 echo
'The person begot a '.$children['role'];
 
recurse($children, 0);
 echo
'; ';
}

echo
"\n";
echo
'The person begot a son who begot a daughter; The person begot a daughter who begot a son; and that son begot a son'."\n";

?>
zyxwvu at users dot sourceforge dot net
15-Feb-2004 06:32
File:

<category>
  <item>text</item>
  <bold>text</bold>
  <item>text</item>
  <item>text</item>
  <mark>text</mark>
  <bold>text</bold>
</category>

If you want to get also names of the tags, you can use this loop layout:

<?php
foreach($category -> children() as $name => $node){
  echo
$name.'<br/>';
}
?>

 
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