Forcing a SimpleXML Object to a string, regardless of context

Question

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?

Answer 1

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.