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The most likely cause of this error is that the XML data you are trying to process is not valid. Alternatively, the XML data may contain non-standard characters or use a different character set encoding. There are several websites that can validate XML data.
easy!
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstring, "SimpleXMLElement", LIBXML_NOCDATA);
$json = json_encode($xml);
$array = json_decode($json,TRUE);
Another option is the SimpleXML extension (I believe it comes standard with most php installs.)
http://php.net/manual/en/book.simplexml.php
The syntax looks something like this for your example
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlString);
echo $xml->bbb->cccc->dddd['Id'];
echo $xml->bbb->cccc->eeee['name'];
// or...........
foreach ($xml->bbb->cccc as $element) {
foreach($element as $key => $val) {
echo "{$key}: {$val}";
}
}
Converting an XML string ($buffer) into a simplified array ignoring attributes and grouping child-elements with the same names:
function XML2Array(SimpleXMLElement $parent)
{
$array = array();
foreach ($parent as $name => $element) {
($node = & $array[$name])
&& (1 === count($node) ? $node = array($node) : 1)
&& $node = & $node[];
$node = $element->count() ? XML2Array($element) : trim($element);
}
return $array;
}
$xml = simplexml_load_string($buffer);
$array = XML2Array($xml);
$array = array($xml->getName() => $array);
Result:
Array
(
[aaaa] => Array
(
[bbb] => Array
(
[cccc] => Array
(
[dddd] =>
[eeee] =>
)
)
)
)
If you also want to have the attributes, they are available via JSON encoding/decoding of SimpleXMLElement. This is often the most easy quick'n'dirty solution:
$xml = simplexml_load_string($buffer);
$array = json_decode(json_encode((array) $xml), true);
$array = array($xml->getName() => $array);
Result:
Array
(
[aaaa] => Array
(
[@attributes] => Array
(
[Version] => 1.0
)
[bbb] => Array
(
[cccc] => Array
(
[dddd] => Array
(
[@attributes] => Array
(
[Id] => id:pass
)
)
[eeee] => Array
(
[@attributes] => Array
(
[name] => hearaman
[age] => 24
)
)
)
)
)
)
Take note that all these methods only work in the namespace of the XML document.
$array = json_decode(json_encode((array)simplexml_load_string($xml)),true);
The method used in the accepted answer drop attributes when encountering child elements with only a text node. For example:
$xml = '<container><element attribute="123">abcd</element></container>';
print_r(json_decode(json_encode(simplexml_load_string($xml, "SimpleXMLElement", LIBXML_NOCDATA)),1));
Array
(
[element] => abcd
)
My solution (and I wish I could give credit here because I'm sure I adapted this from something):
function XMLtoArray($xml) {
$previous_value = libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
$dom = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'UTF-8');
$dom->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
$dom->loadXml($xml);
libxml_use_internal_errors($previous_value);
if (libxml_get_errors()) {
return [];
}
return DOMtoArray($dom);
}
function DOMtoArray($root) {
$result = array();
if ($root->hasAttributes()) {
$attrs = $root->attributes;
foreach ($attrs as $attr) {
$result['@attributes'][$attr->name] = $attr->value;
}
}
if ($root->hasChildNodes()) {
$children = $root->childNodes;
if ($children->length == 1) {
$child = $children->item(0);
if (in_array($child->nodeType,[XML_TEXT_NODE,XML_CDATA_SECTION_NODE])) {
$result['_value'] = $child->nodeValue;
return count($result) == 1
? $result['_value']
: $result;
}
}
$groups = array();
foreach ($children as $child) {
if (!isset($result[$child->nodeName])) {
$result[$child->nodeName] = DOMtoArray($child);
} else {
if (!isset($groups[$child->nodeName])) {
$result[$child->nodeName] = array($result[$child->nodeName]);
$groups[$child->nodeName] = 1;
}
$result[$child->nodeName][] = DOMtoArray($child);
}
}
}
return $result;
}
$xml = '
<aaaa Version="1.0">
<bbb>
<cccc>
<dddd id="123" />
<eeee name="john" age="24" />
<ffff type="employee">Supervisor</ffff>
</cccc>
</bbb>
</aaaa>
';
print_r(XMLtoArray($xml));
Array
(
[aaaa] => Array
(
[@attributes] => Array
(
[Version] => 1.0
)
[bbb] => Array
(
[cccc] => Array
(
[dddd] => Array
(
[@attributes] => Array
(
[id] => 123
)
)
[eeee] => Array
(
[@attributes] => Array
(
[name] => john
[age] => 24
)
)
[ffff] => Array
(
[@attributes] => Array
(
[type] => employee
)
[_value] => Supervisor
)
)
)
)
)
See https://github.com/gaarf/XML-string-to-PHP-array/blob/master/xmlstr_to_array.php
<?php
/**
* convert xml string to php array - useful to get a serializable value
*
* @param string $xmlstr
* @return array
*
* @author Adrien aka Gaarf & contributors
* @see http://gaarf.info/2009/08/13/xml-string-to-php-array/
*/
function xmlstr_to_array($xmlstr) {
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$doc->loadXML($xmlstr);
$root = $doc->documentElement;
$output = domnode_to_array($root);
$output['@root'] = $root->tagName;
return $output;
}
function domnode_to_array($node) {
$output = array();
switch ($node->nodeType) {
case XML_CDATA_SECTION_NODE:
case XML_TEXT_NODE:
$output = trim($node->textContent);
break;
case XML_ELEMENT_NODE:
for ($i=0, $m=$node->childNodes->length; $i<$m; $i++) {
$child = $node->childNodes->item($i);
$v = domnode_to_array($child);
if(isset($child->tagName)) {
$t = $child->tagName;
if(!isset($output[$t])) {
$output[$t] = array();
}
$output[$t][] = $v;
}
elseif($v || $v === '0') {
$output = (string) $v;
}
}
if($node->attributes->length && !is_array($output)) { //Has attributes but isn't an array
$output = array('@content'=>$output); //Change output into an array.
}
if(is_array($output)) {
if($node->attributes->length) {
$a = array();
foreach($node->attributes as $attrName => $attrNode) {
$a[$attrName] = (string) $attrNode->value;
}
$output['@attributes'] = $a;
}
foreach ($output as $t => $v) {
if(is_array($v) && count($v)==1 && $t!='@attributes') {
$output[$t] = $v[0];
}
}
}
break;
}
return $output;
}
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