parsing xml data from php

Question

So I haven't any experience on xml reading with php, I've been doing some research,read some tutorials but there's one thing I'd like to make sure of. Now I have this xml code below (file.xml):

  <location code="TB0023">
    <temp unit="F">15.8</temp>
    <US>Intermittent clouds</US>
  </location>

  <location code="YG0023">
    <temp unit="F">23</temp>
    <US>Mostly Clear</US>
  </location>

So the way I access for example temp on location code="TB0023" is this:

$open = simplexml_load_file('file.xml');
echo $open ->location[0]->temp;

Now I've unsuccessfully trying to make it a bit more readable by doing something like this(like associative arrays somehow):

$open = simplexml_load_file('file.xml');
echo $open ->location[code="TB0023"]->temp;

So is there any way to use that identifier TB0023 to retreive data from that specific location, without using indexes 0 1 2 3...

Thank you.

You need to use xpath; the syntax is almost exactly like you wrote it. — Evert
– Evert, Commented Dec 20, 2012 at 23:05
Thanks. Any possibility to make it work the way I have it actually? — inrob
– inrob, Commented Dec 20, 2012 at 23:07

SteAp · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-20 23:14:41Z

1

The SimpleXML framework contains a SimpleXMLElement class.

Please use SimpleXMLElement's path() method with Xpath expressions described here.

This code from the php.net site

$string = <<<XML
<a>
 <b>
  <c>text</c>
  <c>stuff</c>
 </b>
 <d>
  <c>code</c>
 </d>
</a>
XML;

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($string);

/* Search for <a><b><c> */
$result = $xml->xpath('/a/b/c');

while(list( , $node) = each($result)) {
    echo '/a/b/c: ',$node,"\n";
}

/* Relative paths also work... */
$result = $xml->xpath('b/c');

while(list( , $node) = each($result)) {
    echo 'b/c: ',$node,"\n";
}

will print this:

/a/b/c: text
/a/b/c: stuff
b/c: text
b/c: stuff

XPath is the standard technique to locate elements within XML.

In your case, you'd use an xpath query like this:

/location[@code="TB0023"]/temp

edited Dec 20, 2012 at 23:14

answered Dec 20, 2012 at 23:09

SteAp

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Kevin Barnard · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-20 23:11:32Z

1

You want to use xpath to query the value in the XML.

$result = $open->xpath("//location[@code='TB0023']")

You can find more in the PHP documents XPath

answered Dec 20, 2012 at 23:11

Kevin Barnard

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