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PHP XML Handling

In this page:

  1. What is XML?
  2. Reading XML Elements
  3. Modifying XML Elements
  4. Creating XML with SimpleXML
  5. Looping Through XML Lists

What is XML?

XML represents structured data as nested tags, similar in spirit to HTML but designed for data exchange rather than display; PHP's SimpleXML extension turns an XML document into an easy-to-navigate object tree.

Example: What is XML?

php 
<?php
$xml = simplexml_load_string("<book><title>PHP Basics</title></book>");
echo get_class($xml);
?>

Reading XML Elements

Once loaded with simplexml_load_string() or simplexml_load_file(), XML elements become accessible as regular object properties, so <book><title>...</title></book> becomes $book->title without manual parsing.

Example: Reading XML Elements

php 
<?php
$xml = simplexml_load_string("<book><title>PHP Basics</title></book>");
echo $xml->title;
?>

Modifying XML Elements

Because SimpleXML elements behave like live references into the document, assigning a new value to $element->title actually updates the underlying XML structure, ready to be saved back out.

Example: Modifying XML Elements

php 
<?php
$xml = simplexml_load_string("<book><title>Old Title</title></book>");
$xml->title = "New Title";
echo $xml->asXML();
?>

Creating XML with SimpleXML

addChild() and addAttribute() let you build XML documents programmatically from scratch, appending new nested elements and attributes onto an existing SimpleXMLElement.

Example: Creating XML with SimpleXML

php 
<?php
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement("<book></book>");
$xml->addChild("title", "PHP Basics");
$xml->addAttribute("id", "1");
echo $xml->asXML();
?>

Looping Through XML Lists

When an XML document contains repeated elements (like multiple <item> tags), a standard foreach loop iterates over them cleanly, letting you process each one exactly like looping over an array.

Example: Looping Through XML Lists

php 
<?php
$xml = simplexml_load_string("<items><item>A</item><item>B</item></items>");
foreach ($xml->item as $item) {
    echo $item . "\n";
}
?>
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