xml_parse_into_struct

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)

xml_parse_into_struct — Parse XML data into an array structure

Description

int xml_parse_into_struct ( resource $parser , string $data , array &$values [, array &$index ] )

This function parses an XML string into 2 parallel array structures, one (index) containing pointers to the location of the appropriate values in the values array. These last two parameters must be passed by reference.

Parameters

parser: A reference to the XML parser.
data: A string containing the XML data.
values: An array containing the values of the XML data
index: An array containing pointers to the location of the appropriate values in the $values.

Return Values

xml_parse_into_struct() returns 0 for failure and 1 for success. This is not the same as FALSE and TRUE, be careful with operators such as ===.

Examples

Below is an example that illustrates the internal structure of the arrays being generated by the function. We use a simple note tag embedded inside a para tag, and then we parse this and print out the structures generated:

Example #1 xml_parse_into_struct() example


<?php
$simple = "<para><note>simple note</note></para>";
$p = xml_parser_create();
xml_parse_into_struct($p, $simple, $vals, $index);
xml_parser_free($p);
echo "Index array\n";
print_r($index);
echo "\nVals array\n";
print_r($vals);
?>

When we run that code, the output will be:

Index array
Array
(
    [PARA] => Array
        (
            [0] => 0
            [1] => 2
        )

    [NOTE] => Array
        (
            [0] => 1
        )

)

Vals array
Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [tag] => PARA
            [type] => open
            [level] => 1
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [tag] => NOTE
            [type] => complete
            [level] => 2
            [value] => simple note
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [tag] => PARA
            [type] => close
            [level] => 1
        )

)

Event-driven parsing (based on the expat library) can get complicated when you have an XML document that is complex. This function does not produce a DOM style object, but it generates structures amenable of being transversed in a tree fashion. Thus, we can create objects representing the data in the XML file easily. Let's consider the following XML file representing a small database of aminoacids information:

Example #2 moldb.xml - small database of molecular information

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<moldb>

  <molecule>
      <name>Alanine</name>
      <symbol>ala</symbol>
      <code>A</code>
      <type>hydrophobic</type>
  </molecule>

  <molecule>
      <name>Lysine</name>
      <symbol>lys</symbol>
      <code>K</code>
      <type>charged</type>
  </molecule>

</moldb>

And some code to parse the document and generate the appropriate objects:

Example #3 parsemoldb.php - parses moldb.xml into an array of molecular objects


<?php

class AminoAcid {
    var $name;  // aa name
    var $symbol;    // three letter symbol
    var $code;  // one letter code
    var $type;  // hydrophobic, charged or neutral
    
    function AminoAcid ($aa) 
    {
        foreach ($aa as $k=>$v)
            $this->$k = $aa[$k];
    }
}

function readDatabase($filename) 
{
    // read the XML database of aminoacids
    $data = implode("", file($filename));
    $parser = xml_parser_create();
    xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
    xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
    xml_parse_into_struct($parser, $data, $values, $tags);
    xml_parser_free($parser);

    // loop through the structures
    foreach ($tags as $key=>$val) {
        if ($key == "molecule") {
            $molranges = $val;
            // each contiguous pair of array entries are the 
            // lower and upper range for each molecule definition
            for ($i=0; $i < count($molranges); $i+=2) {
                $offset = $molranges[$i] + 1;
                $len = $molranges[$i + 1] - $offset;
                $tdb[] = parseMol(array_slice($values, $offset, $len));
            }
        } else {
            continue;
        }
    }
    return $tdb;
}

function parseMol($mvalues) 
{
    for ($i=0; $i < count($mvalues); $i++) {
        $mol[$mvalues[$i]["tag"]] = $mvalues[$i]["value"];
    }
    return new AminoAcid($mol);
}

$db = readDatabase("moldb.xml");
echo "** Database of AminoAcid objects:\n";
print_r($db);

?>

After executing parsemoldb.php, the variable $db contains an array of AminoAcid objects, and the output of the script confirms that:

** Database of AminoAcid objects:
Array
(
    [0] => aminoacid Object
        (
            [name] => Alanine
            [symbol] => ala
            [code] => A
            [type] => hydrophobic
        )

    [1] => aminoacid Object
        (
            [name] => Lysine
            [symbol] => lys
            [code] => K
            [type] => charged
        )

)

User Contributed Notes

efredricksen at gmail dot com

9 years ago


Perhaps the one true parser:? I modified xademax's fine code to tidy it up, codewise and style wise, rationalize some minor crazyness, and make names fit nomenclature from the XML spec. (There are no uses of eval, and shame on you people who do.)

<?php 
class XmlElement {
  var $name;
  var $attributes;
  var $content;
  var $children;
};

function xml_to_object($xml) {
  $parser = xml_parser_create();
  xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
  xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
  xml_parse_into_struct($parser, $xml, $tags);
  xml_parser_free($parser);

  $elements = array();  // the currently filling [child] XmlElement array
  $stack = array();
  foreach ($tags as $tag) {
    $index = count($elements);
    if ($tag['type'] == "complete" || $tag['type'] == "open") {
      $elements[$index] = new XmlElement;
      $elements[$index]->name = $tag['tag'];
      $elements[$index]->attributes = $tag['attributes'];
      $elements[$index]->content = $tag['value'];
      if ($tag['type'] == "open") {  // push
        $elements[$index]->children = array();
        $stack[count($stack)] = &$elements;
        $elements = &$elements[$index]->children;
      }
    }
    if ($tag['type'] == "close") {  // pop
      $elements = &$stack[count($stack) - 1];
      unset($stack[count($stack) - 1]);
    }
  }
  return $elements[0];  // the single top-level element
}

// For example:
$xml = '
<parser>
   <name language="en-us">Fred Parser</name>
   <category>
       <name>Nomenclature</name>
       <note>Noteworthy</note>
   </category>
</parser>
';
print_r(xml_to_object($xml));
?>

will give:

xmlelement Object
(
    [name] => parser
    [attributes] => 
    [content] => 
    [children] => Array
        (
            [0] => xmlelement Object
                (
                    [name] => name
                    [attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [language] => en-us
                        )

                    [content] => Fred Parser
                    [children] => 
                )

            [1] => xmlelement Object
                (
                    [name] => category
                    [attributes] => 
                    [content] => 
                    [children] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => xmlelement Object
                                (
                                    [name] => name
                                    [attributes] => 
                                    [content] => Nomenclature
                                    [children] => 
                                )

                            [1] => xmlelement Object
                                (
                                    [name] => note
                                    [attributes] => 
                                    [content] => Noteworthy
                                    [children] => 
                                )

                        )

                )

        )

)

gramo dot gnu at gmail dot com

2 years ago


I really need to make the "xml_parse_into_array" function, and I figured out this "recursive function" solution. (I just test that with ISO-8859-1 charset, but I think it works with ASCII and UTF-8)

/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/
function xml_parse_into_array($xml)
/*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DESCRIPCION:
Convierte un texto en xml codificado en ISO-8859-1 a un arreglo de php.
--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
{
    $retorno = array();

    $p = xml_parser_create();
    xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_TARGET_ENCODING, "ISO-8859-1");
    xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
    xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
    xml_parse_into_struct($p, $xml, $elementos, $llaves);
    xml_parser_free($p);

    $Qprocesados = 0;
    $retorno = xml_sub_parse_into_array($elementos, $Qprocesados);

    return array($retorno, $Qprocesados);
}

/*------------------------------------------------------------------*/
function xml_sub_parse_into_array($xml, &$i, $abierto = null)
/*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DESCRIPCION:
--------------------------------------------------------------------*/
{
    $retorno = array();

    //----------------------------------------
    // Caso trivial: TAG COMPLETO
    //----------------------------------------
    if ($xml[$i]['type'] == 'complete' && isset($xml[$i]['value'])) {
        $retorno[$xml[$i]['tag']] = trim($xml[$i]['value']);
        $i ++;
        return $retorno;
    //----------------------------------------
    // Caso trivial: TAG COMPLETO
    //----------------------------------------
    } else if ($xml[$i]['type'] == 'cdata' && isset($xml[$i]['value'])) {
        $retorno = trim($xml[$i]['value']);
        $i ++;
        return $retorno;
    //----------------------------------------
    // Caso trivial: TAG VACIO
    //----------------------------------------
    } else if ($xml[$i]['type'] == 'complete') {
        // $retorno = "<".$xml[$i]['tag']." />";
        $retorno[$xml[$i]['tag']] = null;
        $i ++;
        return $retorno;
    //----------------------------------------
    // Caso recursivo: TAG CON TAGS ADENTRO
    //----------------------------------------
    } else if ($xml[$i]['type'] == 'open') {
        $abierto = $xml[$i]['tag'];
        $nivel   = $xml[$i]['level'];

        if (!isset($retorno[$abierto]))
            $retorno[$abierto] = array();

        if (isset($xml[$i]['value'])) {
            $retorno[$abierto][] = trim($xml[$i]['value']);
        }

        $i ++;
        $termino = false;
        while (!$termino && $i < count($xml)) {
            if ($xml[$i]['tag'] == $abierto &&
                $xml[$i]['type'] == 'close' &&
                $xml[$i]['level'] == $nivel ) {
                $termino = true;
            } else {
                $retorno[$abierto][] = xml_sub_parse_into_array($xml, $i, $abierto);
                if ($i < count($xml))
                    if ($xml[$i]['type'] == 'close') {
                        $i ++;
                        return $retorno;
                    }
            }
        }
        return $retorno;
    }
}

Alf Marius Foss Olsen

8 years ago


<?php
/*
  An easy lightweight (Array ->) XML -> Array algorithm..

  Typical case: You have an array you want to export to an external server,
                so you make XML out of it, exports it, and "on the other side"
                make it into an array again. These two functions will take care
                of that last part, ie XML -> Array
  
  NOTE! The function XMLToArray assumes that the XML _dont_ have nodes on the
        same level with the same name, then it just wont work. This is not a
        problem, as this case deals with Array -> XML -> Array, and an array
        cant have to identical indexes/keys.
*/

function XMLToArray($xml) {
  $parser = xml_parser_create('ISO-8859-1'); // For Latin-1 charset
  xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0); // Dont mess with my cAsE sEtTings
  xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1); // Dont bother with empty info
  xml_parse_into_struct($parser, $xml, $values);
  xml_parser_free($parser);
  
  $return = array(); // The returned array
  $stack = array(); // tmp array used for stacking
  foreach($values as $val) {
    if($val['type'] == "open") {
      array_push($stack, $val['tag']);
    } elseif($val['type'] == "close") {
      array_pop($stack);
    } elseif($val['type'] == "complete") {
      array_push($stack, $val['tag']);
      setArrayValue($return, $stack, $val['value']);
      array_pop($stack);
    }//if-elseif
  }//foreach
  return $return;
}//function XMLToArray
  
function setArrayValue(&$array, $stack, $value) {
  if ($stack) {
    $key = array_shift($stack);
    setArrayValue($array[$key], $stack, $value);
    return $array;
  } else {
    $array = $value;
  }//if-else
}//function setArrayValue
  
// USAGE:
$xml = <<<QQQ
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <node1>Some text</node1>
  <node2a>
    <node2b>
      <node2c>Some text</node2c>
    </node2b>
  </node2a>
</root>\n
QQQ;
$array = XMLToArray($xml);
print "<pre>";
print_r($array);
print "</pre>";
//  Output:
//
//  Array
//  (
//      [root] => Array
//          (
//              [node1] => Some text
//              [node2a] => Array
//                  (
//                      [node2b] => Array
//                          (
//                              [node2c] => Some text
//                          )
//                  )
//          )
//  )
?>

sujithfem at gmail dot com

6 years ago


following function use to get the value for given XML tag



<?php

function getXmlValueByTag($inXmlset,$needle){

        $resource    =    xml_parser_create();//Create an XML parser

        xml_parse_into_struct($resource, $inXmlset, $outArray);// Parse XML data into an array structure

        xml_parser_free($resource);//Free an XML parser

        

        for($i=0;$i<count($outArray);$i++){

            if($outArray[$i]['tag']==strtoupper($needle)){

                $tagValue    =    $outArray[$i]['value'];

            }

        }

        return $tagValue;

    }



    echo getXmlValueByTag($inXmlset,$needle);

?>

dale at ucsc dot edu

7 years ago


here you can [re]assemble xml from a xml_parse_into_struct generated array: ie array2xml



<?php

$xml_parser = xml_parser_create( 'UTF-8' ); // UTF-8 or ISO-8859-1

xml_parser_set_option( $xml_parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0 );

xml_parser_set_option( $xml_parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1 );

xml_parse_into_struct( $xml_parser, $my_text_xml, $aryXML );

xml_parser_free($xml_parser);



//now use aryXML array to xml string:

        $o='';

        foreach( $aryXML as $tag ){

            //tab space:

            for($i=1; $i < $tag['level'];$i++)

                $o.="\t";

            if($tag['type']!='close'){

                if($tag['type']!='cdata')

                    $o.='<'.$tag['tag'];

                if(isset($tag['attributes'])){                

                    foreach($tag['attributes'] as $attr=>$aval){

                        $o.=' '.$attr.'="'.$aval.'"';

                    }

                }

                if($tag['type']!='cdata'){

                    $o.=($tag['type']=='complete')?'/>'."\n":'>'."\n";

                }

                $o.=(isset($tag['value']))?$tag['value']:'';

            }else{

                $o.='</'.$tag['tag'].'>';

            }                

        }

?>

beaudurrant at gmail dot com

8 years ago


This is extending what Alf Marius Foss Olsen had posted above.

It takes into account array keys with the same name and uses an increment for them instead of overwriting the keys.

I am using it for SOAP requests (20K - 150K) and it parses very fast compared to PEAR.

<?

class XMLParser  {
    
    // raw xml
    private $rawXML;
    // xml parser
    private $parser = null;
    // array returned by the xml parser
    private $valueArray = array();
    private $keyArray = array();
    
    // arrays for dealing with duplicate keys
    private $duplicateKeys = array();
    
    // return data
    private $output = array();
    private $status;

    public function XMLParser($xml){
        $this->rawXML = $xml;
        $this->parser = xml_parser_create();
        return $this->parse();
    }

    private function parse(){
        
        $parser = $this->parser;
        
        xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0); // Dont mess with my cAsE sEtTings
        xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);     // Dont bother with empty info
        if(!xml_parse_into_struct($parser, $this->rawXML, $this->valueArray, $this->keyArray)){
            $this->status = 'error: '.xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($parser)).' at line '.xml_get_current_line_number($parser);
            return false;
        }
        xml_parser_free($parser);

        $this->findDuplicateKeys();

        // tmp array used for stacking
        $stack = array();         
        $increment = 0;
        
        foreach($this->valueArray as $val) {
            if($val['type'] == "open") {
                //if array key is duplicate then send in increment
                if(array_key_exists($val['tag'], $this->duplicateKeys)){
                    array_push($stack, $this->duplicateKeys[$val['tag']]);
                    $this->duplicateKeys[$val['tag']]++;
                }
                else{
                    // else send in tag
                    array_push($stack, $val['tag']);
                }
            } elseif($val['type'] == "close") {
                array_pop($stack);
                // reset the increment if they tag does not exists in the stack
                if(array_key_exists($val['tag'], $stack)){
                    $this->duplicateKeys[$val['tag']] = 0;
                }
            } elseif($val['type'] == "complete") {
                //if array key is duplicate then send in increment
                if(array_key_exists($val['tag'], $this->duplicateKeys)){
                    array_push($stack, $this->duplicateKeys[$val['tag']]);
                    $this->duplicateKeys[$val['tag']]++;
                }
                else{                
                    // else send in tag
                    array_push($stack,  $val['tag']);
                }
                $this->setArrayValue($this->output, $stack, $val['value']);
                array_pop($stack);
            }
            $increment++;
        }

        $this->status = 'success: xml was parsed';
        return true;

    }
    
    private function findDuplicateKeys(){
        
        for($i=0;$i < count($this->valueArray); $i++) {
            // duplicate keys are when two complete tags are side by side
            if($this->valueArray[$i]['type'] == "complete"){
                if( $i+1 < count($this->valueArray) ){
                    if($this->valueArray[$i+1]['tag'] == $this->valueArray[$i]['tag'] && $this->valueArray[$i+1]['type'] == "complete"){
                        $this->duplicateKeys[$this->valueArray[$i]['tag']] = 0;
                    }
                }
            }
            // also when a close tag is before an open tag and the tags are the same
            if($this->valueArray[$i]['type'] == "close"){
                if( $i+1 < count($this->valueArray) ){
                    if(    $this->valueArray[$i+1]['type'] == "open" && $this->valueArray[$i+1]['tag'] == $this->valueArray[$i]['tag'])
                        $this->duplicateKeys[$this->valueArray[$i]['tag']] = 0; 
                }
            }
            
        }
        
    }
    
    private function setArrayValue(&$array, $stack, $value){
        if ($stack) {
            $key = array_shift($stack);
            $this->setArrayValue($array[$key], $stack, $value);
            return $array;
        } else {
            $array = $value;
        }
    }
    
    public function getOutput(){
        return $this->output;
    }
    
    public function getStatus(){
        return $this->status;    
    }
       
}

?>

Usage:

$p = new XMLParser($xml);
$p->getOutput();

rejeesh_designdirect at yahoo dot com

2 years ago


Simple method for format XML to Array

function xml2array($xml){
    $opened = array();
    $xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
    xml_parse_into_struct($xml_parser, $xml, $xmlarray);
    $array = array();
    $arrsize = sizeof($xmlarray);
    for($j=0;$j<$arrsize;$j++){
        $val = $xmlarray[$j];
        switch($val["type"]){
            case "open":
                $opened[$val["tag"]] = $array;
                unset($array);
                break;
            case "complete":
                $array[$val["tag"]][] = $val["value"];
            break;
            case "close":
                $opened[$val["tag"]] = $array;
                $array = $opened;
            break;
        }
    }
    return $array;
}

andy at andynformatics dot de

3 years ago


To get out of an XML-Structure like this:

<root><element><subelement attribute="value">some text</subelement></element><anotherelement>Hello World</anotherelement></root>

something like this:



Array

(

    [tag] => ROOT

    [0] => Array

        (

            [tag] => ELEMENT

            [0] => Array

                (

                    [tag] => SUBELEMENT

                    [attributes] => Array

                        (

                            [ATTRIBUTE] => value

                        )



                    [value] => some text

                )



        )



    [1] => Array

        (

            [tag] => ANOTHERELEMENT

            [value] => Hello World

        )



)



I have written a short and pretty simple function:



<?php

function xml2array($xml){

    $opened = array();

    $opened[1] = 0;

    $xml_parser = xml_parser_create();

    xml_parse_into_struct($xml_parser, $xml, $xmlarray);

    $array = array_shift($xmlarray);

    unset($array["level"]);

    unset($array["type"]);

    $arrsize = sizeof($xmlarray);

    for($j=0;$j<$arrsize;$j++){

        $val = $xmlarray[$j];

        switch($val["type"]){

            case "open":

                $opened[$val["level"]]=0;

            case "complete":

                $index = "";

                for($i = 1; $i < ($val["level"]); $i++)

                    $index .= "[" . $opened[$i] . "]";

                $path = explode('][', substr($index, 1, -1));

                $value = &$array;

                foreach($path as $segment)

                    $value = &$value[$segment];

                $value = $val;

                unset($value["level"]);

                unset($value["type"]);

                if($val["type"] == "complete")

                    $opened[$val["level"]-1]++;

            break;

            case "close":

                $opened[$val["level"]-1]++;

                unset($opened[$val["level"]]);

            break;

        }

    }

    return $array;

}

?>

aerik at thesylvans dot com

7 years ago


Here's another attempt at dealing with rebuilding the xml from the array.  I'm basically preventing certain tags from being self closing by just checking for them explicitly (sure wish expat didn't interpret <textarea /> and <textarea></textarea> the same way (as "complete" tags).



<?php

function array2xml($xmlary){

  $o='';

  foreach($xmlary as $tag ){

    if($tag['tag'] == 'textarea' && !isset($tag['value'])){

      //fake a value so it won't self close

      $tag['value']='';

    }

    //tab space:

    $t = '';

    for($i=1; $i < $tag['level'];$i++){

      $t.="\t";

    }

    switch($tag['type']){

      case 'complete':

      case 'open':

        $o.=$t.'<'.$tag['tag'];

        if(isset($tag['attributes'])){

          foreach($tag['attributes'] as $attr=>$aval){

            $o.=' '.$attr.'="'.$aval.'"';

          }//foreach

        }//attributes

        if($tag['type'] == 'complete'){

          if(!isset($tag['value'])){

            $o .= ' />'."\n";

          } else {

            $o .= '>'."\n".$t.$tag['value']."\n".$t.'</'.$tag['tag'].'>'."\n";

          }

        }else{

          $o .= '>'."\n";

        }

        break;

      case 'close':

        $o .= $t.'</'.$tag['tag'].'>'."\n";

        break;

      case 'cdata':

        $o .= $t.$tag['value']."\n";

        break;

    }//switch

  }//foreach

}

?>

Llorenc

7 years ago


Sorry, forgot my last post below, I confused CDATA sections (<![CDATA[]]>) with the value type "cdata", which despite its name it's very different! The first allows adding markup (&,<,>) as regular text and the second is to indicate a not complete node between the open and close nodes. What is true is that the CDATA delimiters are lost after xml_parse_into_struct so it's not possible to revert the process.

Please, feel free to remove my comments or leave them if you think they can help anyone.

wickedfather at hotmail dot com

7 years ago


Had a comment up that was removed saying I'd found drawbacks, but here's a class what I wrote which works fine for me.  Comments removed due to post restrictions.  Pass the xml into the parse method or in the constructor.  Php4 and 5 safe.

class XMLThing
{
    var $rawXML;
    var $valueArray = array();
    var $keyArray = array();
    var $parsed = array();
    var $index = 0;
    var $attribKey = 'attributes';
    var $valueKey = 'value';
    var $cdataKey = 'cdata';
    var $isError = false;
    var $error = '';

    function XMLThing($xml = NULL)
    {
        $this->rawXML = $xml;
    }

    function parse($xml = NULL)
    {
        if (!is_null($xml))
        {
            $this->rawXML = $xml;
        }

        $this->isError = false;
            
        if (!$this->parse_init())
        {
            return false;
        }

        $this->index = 0;
        $this->parsed = $this->parse_recurse();
        $this->status = 'parsing complete';

        return $this->parsed;
    }

    function parse_recurse()
    {        
        $found = array();
        $tagCount = array();

        while (isset($this->valueArray[$this->index]))
        {
            $tag = $this->valueArray[$this->index];
            $this->index++;

            if ($tag['type'] == 'close')
            {
                return $found;
            }

            if ($tag['type'] == 'cdata')
            {
                $tag['tag'] = $this->cdataKey;
                $tag['type'] = 'complete';
            }

            $tagName = $tag['tag'];

            if (isset($tagCount[$tagName]))
            {        
                if ($tagCount[$tagName] == 1)
                {
                    $found[$tagName] = array($found[$tagName]);
                }
                    
                $tagRef =& $found[$tagName][$tagCount[$tagName]];
                $tagCount[$tagName]++;
            }
            else    
            {
                $tagCount[$tagName] = 1;
                $tagRef =& $found[$tagName];
            }

            switch ($tag['type'])
            {
                case 'open':
                    $tagRef = $this->parse_recurse();

                    if (isset($tag['attributes']))
                    {
                        $tagRef[$this->attribKey] = $tag['attributes'];
                    }
                        
                    if (isset($tag['value']))
                    {
                        if (isset($tagRef[$this->cdataKey]))    
                        {
                            $tagRef[$this->cdataKey] = (array)$tagRef[$this->cdataKey];    
                            array_unshift($tagRef[$this->cdataKey], $tag['value']);
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            $tagRef[$this->cdataKey] = $tag['value'];
                        }
                    }
                    break;

                case 'complete':
                    if (isset($tag['attributes']))
                    {
                        $tagRef[$this->attribKey] = $tag['attributes'];
                        $tagRef =& $tagRef[$this->valueKey];
                    }

                    if (isset($tag['value']))
                    {
                        $tagRef = $tag['value'];
                    }
                    break;
            }            
        }

        return $found;
    }

    function parse_init()
    {
        $this->parser = xml_parser_create();

        $parser = $this->parser;
        xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);     
        xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);        
        if (!$res = (bool)xml_parse_into_struct($parser, $this->rawXML, $this->valueArray, $this->keyArray))
        {
            $this->isError = true;
            $this->error = 'error: '.xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($parser)).' at line '.xml_get_current_line_number($parser);
        }
        xml_parser_free($parser);

        return $res;
    }
}

jukea

8 years ago


concerning Adam Tylmad's code, note that the line

 if ($data = xml::cleanString($data))

prevents 0 values to be considered, as this will evaluate to false. I just tracked down this bug in our system .. ouch

wickedfather at hotmail dot com

8 years ago


To beaudurrant - that class is great and structures things in a very sensible way.  Only problem is that it raises an error if a tag is empty, so would suggest a simple mod to the parse method just to add an isset test.

if (isset($val['value']))
{
    $this->setArrayValue($this->output, $stack, $val['value']);
}

mathiasrav at gmail dot com

8 years ago


In response to Anonymous' post at 26-Feb-2008 11:50:

Saying that you "don't understand everything" isn't going to get you very popular - you should understand the code you use.
foreach isn't *slow* in PHP, it is actually faster than the equivalent for-construct (which, in many cases, isn't available).

The reason your script is slow is simply your use of xml_parse_into_struct - it reads the whole XML-string and doesn't return until it has parsed and validated it all. If you're looking for efficiency, you'll have to use the more low-level xml_parser_create, xml_set_*_handler functions. Then make sure you don't keep everything in a huge array before outputting it (at least don't if you're going for efficiency).

Anonymous

8 years ago


Hi, I actually use this parser without understanding everything. I read somewhere that using "foreach" is very slow, and I indeed noticed that this parser was slow, when getting a lot of data, so how should I edit it to make it faster ? (with the exact same output) thanks in advance

    $xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
    $data = $outputone;
    
    xml_parse_into_struct($xml_parser, $data, $vals, $index);
    xml_parser_free($xml_parser);
    
    $params = array();
    $level = array();
    $i="1";
    
    foreach ($vals as $xml_elem) {
        if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'open' && $xml_elem['level'] == '1') {
                $level[$xml_elem['level']] = $xml_elem['tag'];
        }
        if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'open' && $xml_elem['level'] == '2') {
                $level[$xml_elem['level']] = $xml_elem['tag']."".$i;
                $i++;
        }        
        if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'complete') {
            $start_level = 1;
            $php_stmt = '$params';
            while($start_level < $xml_elem['level']) {
                $php_stmt .= '[$level['.$start_level.']]';
                $start_level++;
            }
            $php_stmt .= '[$xml_elem[\'tag\']] = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';
                eval($php_stmt);
        }
    }

php dot net at crazedsanity dot com

8 years ago


There's an updated version of cs-phpxml (http://sf.net/projects/cs-phpxml, or https://cs-phpxml.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/cs-phpxml/releases for the latest out of subversion) which easily converts an XML string into a PHP array.  Using my previous example::: 

<?php
/**
 *
 * *********** EXAMPLE ***********
 *
 * Original file contents:
 * <test xmlns="stuff">
 *         <indexOne>hello</indexOne>
 *         <my_single_index testAttribute="hello" />
 *         <multiple_items>
 *             <item>1</item>
 *             <item>2</item>
 *         </multiple_items>
 * </test>
 *
 * Would return:::
 *
 * array(
 *     TEST => array(
 *         indexOne => hello,
 *         my_single_index => NULL,
 *         multiple_items => array(
 *               items => array(
 *                   0 => 1,
 *                   1 => 2
 *               )
 *         ),
 *     ),
 * );
*/
?>

I've been using this in many production environments, and it's been very stable.  The syntax is pretty simple, too:::

<?php
require_once(dirname(__FILE__) ."/cs-phpxml/xmlParserClass.php");
$xmlParser = new xmlParser(file_get_contents("test.xml"));
$myArray = $xmlParser->get_tree(TRUE);

?>

vinod at citadel-soft dot com

8 years ago


My previous code was having some bugs in, that is fixed now 

<?php
class CSLXmlReader {
    private $tagstack;
    private $xmlvals;  
    private  $xmlvarArrPos;
    private $xmlfile;
    function __construct($filename)  // constructor to intialize the stack and val array
    {
       
        $this->tagstack = array();   // contain the open tags till now
        $this->xmlvals = array(); 
        $this->xmlvarArrPos = $this->xmlvals;  // temporary variable to hold the current tag position    
        $this->xmlfile = $filename; 
    }
    function readDatabase() 
    {
        // read the XML database 
        $data = implode("", file($this->xmlfile));
        $parser = xml_parser_create();
        xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
        xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
        xml_parse_into_struct($parser, $data, $values, $tags);
        xml_parser_free($parser);
    
        foreach($values as $key => $val)  // 
        {
            if($val['type'] == "open")
            {
                array_push($this->tagstack, $val['tag']);
                $this->getArrayPath(); 
                if(count($this->xmlvarArrPos) > 0 && (!array_key_exists(0,$this->xmlvarArrPos)))
                {
                    $temp1 = $this->xmlvarArrPos;
                    $this->xmlvarArrPos =  array();
                    $this->xmlvarArrPos[0] = $temp1;
                    array_push($this->tagstack, 1);
                }    
                else if( array_key_exists(0,$this->xmlvarArrPos)){ 
                    $opncount = count($this->xmlvarArrPos);
                    array_push($this->tagstack, $opncount);
                }
                $tagStackPointer += 1;
            }else if($val['type'] == "close")
            {
                while( $val['tag'] != ($lastOpened = array_pop($this->tagstack))){}
            }else if($val['type'] ==  "complete")
            {
                $this->getArrayPath();
                if( array_key_exists($val['tag'],$this->xmlvarArrPos))
                {    
                    if(array_key_exists(0,$this->xmlvarArrPos[$val['tag']]))
                    {
                        $elementCount = count($this->xmlvarArrPos[$val['tag']]);
                        $this->xmlvarArrPos[$val['tag']][$elementCount] = $val['value'];
                    }else
                    {        
                        $temp1 = $this->xmlvarArrPos[$val['tag']];
                        $this->xmlvarArrPos[$val['tag']] =  array();
                        $this->xmlvarArrPos[$val['tag']][0] = $temp1;
                        $this->xmlvarArrPos[$val['tag']][1] = $val['value'];
                    }
                } else
                {
                    $this->xmlvarArrPos[$val['tag']] = $val['value'];
                }
            }
        }
        reset($this->xmlvals);
        return $this->xmlvals;
    }
    function getArrayPath()
    {

        reset($this->xmlvals);
        $this->xmlvarArrPos = &$this->xmlvals;
        foreach($this->tagstack as $key)
        {    
            $this->xmlvarArrPos = &$this->xmlvarArrPos[$key];
                    
        }
    }
        
}

$readerObj  = new CSLXmlReader("test.xml");
$xmlvals = $readerObj->readDatabase();

echo "########## XML Values In array as the multidimentional array  #############\n";
echo "<pre>";
print_r($xmlvals);
echo "</pre>"; 

?>

php dot net at crazedsanity dot com

8 years ago


If you're interested in something that creates arrays in PHP, handles attributes well, and is easily transferrable back into XML, you may want to take a look at the cs-phpxml project at SourceForge.net (http://sf.net/projects/cs-phpxml).  It's not necessarily documented very well, but it will do something like this:

<?php
/**
 * 
 * *********** EXAMPLE ***********
 * 
 * Original file contents:
 * <test xmlns="stuff">
 *         <indexOne>hello</indexOne>
 *         <my_single_index testAttribute="hello" />
 *         <multiple_items>
 *             <item>1</item>
 *             <item>2</item>
 *         </multiple_items>
 * </test>
 * 
 * Would return:
 * 
 * array(
 *     TEST => array(
 *         type => 'open',
 *         attributes => array(
 *             xmlns => 'stuff'
 *         )
 *         INDEXONE => 'hello',
 *         MY_SINGLE_INDEX = array(
 *             type => 'complete',
 *             
 *         )
 *     )
 * );
*/
?>

It's presently under development, but I'm using it in several production environments.  The XMLCreator is kinda clunky (builds XML within PHP code).  NOTE: it has a dependency on "cs-arraytopath", also available at sourceforge via http://sf.net/projects/cs-arraytopath .  The setup is a bit irritating, and it's fragile when handling quoting & formatting the data, but I think it's worth the hassle for most projects.

siteres at gmail dot com

9 years ago


PHP: XML to Array and backwards:

Here the XML with PHP solution: XML->Array and Array->XML.
Work with it as with usual array.

Sources are here:
http://mysrc.blogspot.com/2007/02/php-xml-to-array-and-backwards.html
(leave me comments:)

Example #1 (1.xml):

<ddd>
 <onemore dd="55">
  <tt>333</tt>
  <tt ss="s1">555</tt>
  <tt>777</tt>
 </onemore>
 <two>sdf rr</two>
</ddd>

The code:

$xml=xml2ary(file_get_contents('1.xml'));
print_r($xml); 

Here is the Array result:

Array
(
   [ddd] => Array (
           [_c] => Array (
                   [_p] => Array *RECURSION*
                   [onemore] => Array (
                           [_a] => Array (
                                   [dd] => 55
                               )
                           [_c] => Array (
                                   [_p] => Array  *RECURSION*
                                   [tt] => Array (
                                           [0] => Array (
                                                   [_v] => 333
                                               )
                                           [1] => Array (
                                                   [_a] => Array (
                                                           [ss] => s1
                                                       )
                                                   [_v] => 555
                                               )
                                           [2] => Array (
                                                   [_v] => 777
                                               )
                                       )
                               )
                       )
                   [two] => Array (
                           [_v] => sdf rr
                       )
               )
       )
)

amish

9 years ago


Previous parser worked great for me, except a few issues. It did not work well if the element has attributes. I had a huge xml with so many elements, and attributes. Somehow, it mixed up my array, and messed up the keys. Hope following code help fix those issues....

$xml_response = "
<test>
   <item>
     <name att=\"this should show up\">Item1</name>
     <id>item_1</id>
     <description> This is Item 1</description>
     <quantity>10</quantity>
     <navigation website='site1'>test1</navigation>
     <navigation website='site2'>test2</navigation>
   </item>
</test>
"

$parser = xml_parser_create();
xml_parser_set_option($parser,XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING,0);    
xml_parser_set_option($parser,XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE,1);    
xml_parse_into_struct($parser,$xml_response,$values,$tags);    
xml_parser_free($parser);

$params = array();
$level = array();

foreach ($values as $xml_elem) {
    $start_level = 1;
           if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'open') {
            if (array_key_exists('attributes',$xml_elem)) {
                 list($level[$xml_elem['level']],$extra) = array_values($xml_elem['attributes']);
             } else {
                 $level[$xml_elem['level']] = $xml_elem['tag'];
             }
               $name_array    =    array();
         $i=0;
           }

           if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'complete') {
           if(!in_array($xml_elem['tag'], $name_array)){
                 array_push($name_array, $xml_elem['tag']);
                   $i=0;
              }else{
            $i++;
             }
             $php_stmt = '$params';
             while($start_level < $xml_elem['level']) {
                      $php_stmt .= '[$level['.$start_level.']]';                     
                    $test    =    $php_stmt;
                    $start_level++;
             }
             $php_stmt .= '[$xml_elem[\'tag\']][$i] = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';
             if(isset($xml_elem['attributes'])){
                         foreach ($xml_elem['attributes'] as $key=>$va){
                     $attribute    =    '';
                     $new_stmt    =    '';
                     $attribute    =    "".$i."_attribute_".$key."";  
                       $new_stmt .= $test.'[$xml_elem[\'tag\']][$attribute] = $va;';                       
                     eval($new_stmt);
                    }
              }
              eval($php_stmt);
              $start_level--;
           }
           if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'close') {
           array_pop($level);
           }
}

webmaster at after5webdesign dot com

9 years ago


That parser also has a problem in which it will not parse more items than the current level it is on. That is, parsing this:  <1><2>A</2><2>B</2><2>C</2></1>
Will only result in this: A B
C is never processed.

It might be better with something like this:
          $file = get_url('http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=current+events', URL_CONTENT);
          $data = $file['content'];
          $xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
          xml_parse_into_struct($xml_parser, $data, $vals, $index);
          xml_parser_free($xml_parser);
          //Uncomment the lines below to see the entire structure of your XML document
          //echo "<pre>INDEX: \n";
          //print_r ($index);
          //echo "\n \n \n VALUES:";
          //print_r ($vals);
          //echo "</pre>";
          $params = array();
          $level = array();
          $start_level = 1;
          foreach ($vals as $xml_elem) {
            if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'open') {
              if (array_key_exists('attributes',$xml_elem)) {
                list($level[$xml_elem['level']],$extra) = array_values($xml_elem['attributes']);
              } else {
                $level[$xml_elem['level']] = $xml_elem['tag'];
              }
            }
            if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'complete') {
              $php_stmt = '$params';
              while($start_level < $xml_elem['level']) {
                $php_stmt .= '[$level['.$start_level.']]';
                $start_level++;
              }
              $php_stmt .= '[$xml_elem[\'tag\']][] = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';
              eval($php_stmt);
              $start_level--;
            }
          }
          echo "<pre>";
          print_r ($params);
          echo "</pre>";

~Tim_Myth

xademax at gmail dot com

10 years ago


This is just another simple xml parser :)

<?php

class Xml
{
    var $tag;
    var $value;
    var $attributes;
    var $next;
}

function xml2array($xml_string)
{
    $Parser = xml_parser_create();
    xml_parser_set_option($Parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
    xml_parser_set_option($Parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
    xml_parse_into_struct($Parser, $xml_string, $Xml_Values);
    xml_parser_free($Parser);
    $XmlClass = array();
    $LastObj = array();
    $NowObj = &$XmlClass;

    foreach($Xml_Values as $Xml_Key => $Xml_Value)
    {
        $Index = count($NowObj);
        if($Xml_Value["type"] == "complete")
        {
            $NowObj[$Index] = new Xml;
            $NowObj[$Index]->tag = $Xml_Value["tag"];
            $NowObj[$Index]->value = $Xml_Value["value"];
            $NowObj[$Index]->attributes = $Xml_Value["attributes"];
        }
        elseif($Xml_Value["type"] == "open")
        {
            $NowObj[$Index] = new Xml;
            $NowObj[$Index]->tag = $Xml_Value["tag"];
            $NowObj[$Index]->value = $Xml_Value["value"];
            $NowObj[$Index]->attributes = $Xml_Value["attributes"];
            $NowObj[$Index]->next = array();
            $LastObj[count($LastObj)] = &$NowObj;
            $NowObj = &$NowObj[$Index]->next;
        }
        elseif($Xml_Value["type"] == "close")
        {
            $NowObj = &$LastObj[count($LastObj) - 1];
            unset($LastObj[count($LastObj) - 1]);
        }
        
    }

    return $XmlClass;
}

$String = "
<parser>
    <parseur_name>MyParser</parseur_name>
    <category>
        <name>Name 1</name>
        <note>A note 1</note>
    </category>
</parser>
";
$Xml = xml2array($String);

print_r($Xml);
?>

This exemple will show : 
Array
(
    [0] => Xml Object
        (
            [tag] => parser
            [value] => 
            [attributes] => 
            [next] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Xml Object
                        (
                            [tag] => parseur_name
                            [value] => MyParser
                            [attributes] => 
                            [next] => 
                        )

                    [1] => Xml Object
                        (
                            [tag] => category
                            [value] => 
                            [attributes] => 
                            [next] => Array
                                (
                                    [0] => Xml Object
                                        (
                                            [tag] => name
                                            [value] => Name 1
                                            [attributes] => 
                                            [next] => 
                                        )

                                    [1] => Xml Object
                                        (
                                            [tag] => note
                                            [value] => A note 1
                                            [attributes] => 
                                            [next] => 
                                        )

                                )

                        )

                )

        )

)

VampBoy

10 years ago


WHUPS! that was a broken test version.here is the real one:

class xml2array{
/* This class parses XML tags into a recursive, associative array with the tags as the associative array elements names.

if it encounters multiples of the same tag within a stream, it enumerates them as a sub array under the tag thus:

Array (
    [Lvl1tag] => Array (
        [0] => Array(
            [Lvl2tag] = "foo")
        [1]=> Array(
            [Lvl2tag] = "bar")
    )
)

It tries to detect when there is only one copy of a tag under another, and concatinate properly.
*/

    function readxmlfile($xmlfile){ // reads XML file in and returns it
      $xmlstream =fopen($xmlfile,r);
      $xmlraw=fread($xmlstream,1000000);
      fclose($xmlstream);
      return $xmlraw;
    }

    function parseXMLintoarray ($xmldata){ // starts the process and returns the final array
      $xmlparser = xml_parser_create();
      xml_parse_into_struct($xmlparser, $xmldata, $arraydat);
      xml_parser_free($xmlparser);
      $semicomplete = $this->subdivide($arraydat);
      $complete = $this->correctentries($semicomplete);
      return $complete;
    }
    
    function subdivide ($dataarray, $level = 1){
      foreach ($dataarray as $key => $dat){
        if ($dat[level] === $level && $dat[type] === "open"){
          $toplvltag = $dat[tag];
        } elseif ($dat[level] === $level && $dat[type] === "close" && $dat[tag]=== $toplvltag){
          $newarray[$toplvltag][] = $this->subdivide($temparray,($level +1));
         
         
          unset($temparray,$nextlvl);
        } elseif ($dat[level] === $level && $dat[type] === "complete"){
          $newarray[$dat[tag]]=$dat[value];
        } elseif ($dat[type] === "complete"||$dat[type] === "close"||$dat[type] === "open"){
          $temparray[]=$dat;
        }
      }
      return $newarray;
    }
function correctentries($dataarray){

if (is_array($dataarray)){
  $keys =  array_keys($dataarray);
  if (count($keys)== 1 && is_int($keys[0])){
    $tmp = $dataarray[0];
    unset($dataarray[0]);
       $dataarray = $tmp;
  }
  $keys2 = array_keys($dataarray);
  foreach($keys2 as $key){
    $tmp2 = $dataarray[$key];
    unset($dataarray[$key]);
    $dataarray[$key] = $this->correctentries($tmp2);
    unset($tmp2);
  }
  }
return $dataarray;
}
}

p dot gasiorowski at axent dot pl

10 years ago


Something similar to kieran's _xml2array, however much more faster.
------
class ObjectFromXML
{
    var $parser;
    var $iter = 0; 
    var $path = array();
    var $xml = array();

    function ObjectFromXML($XML)
    {
        $this->parser = xml_parser_create();
        
        xml_set_object($this->parser, &$this);
        
        xml_parser_set_option($this->parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
        xml_parser_set_option($this->parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);

        xml_set_element_handler($this->parser, "hanleTagStart", "hanleTagEnd");
        xml_set_character_data_handler($this->parser, "hanleTagCData");

        xml_parse($this->parser, $XML);
        xml_parser_free($this->parser);
        
        $this->xml = $this->xml['_children'][0];
    } 

    function getEvalPath()
    {
        return '$this->xml[' . "'" . implode("']['", $this->path) . "'" . ']';
    } 

    function hanleTagStart($parser, $tag, $attributes)
    {
        array_push($this->path, '_children');
        array_push($this->path, ($this->iter++));

        $e = $this->getEvalPath();
        eval ($e . "['_name'] = \$tag;");
        if ($attributes !== array())
        {
            eval ($e . "['_attributes'] = \$attributes;");
        } 
    } 

    function hanleTagCData($parser, $cdata)
    {
        $e = $this->getEvalPath();
        eval ($e . "['_value'] = \$cdata;");
    } 

    function hanleTagEnd($parser, $tag)
    {
        array_pop($this->path);
        array_pop($this->path);
    } 
}

mbirth at webwriters dot de

10 years ago


Searching for a nice and working way to get a RSS feed into an array-structure, I found the solution posted by kieran but disliked those several eval()s. So I wrote my own using references/pointers.

<?php

class RSSParser {
  
  var $struct = array();  // holds final structure
  var $curptr;  // current branch on $struct
  var $parents = array();  // parent branches of current branch
  
  function RSSParser($url) {
    $this->curptr =& $this->struct;  // set ref to base
    $xmlparser = xml_parser_create();
    xml_set_object($xmlparser, $this);
    xml_set_element_handler($xmlparser, 'tag_open', 'tag_close');
    xml_set_character_data_handler($xmlparser, 'cdata');
    $fp = fopen($url, 'r');

    while ($data = fread($fp, 4096))
      xml_parse($xmlparser, $data, feof($fp))
      || die(sprintf("XML error: %s at line %d", 
         xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($xmlparser)), 
         xml_get_current_line_number($xmlparser)));

    fclose($fp);
    xml_parser_free($xmlparser);
  }
  
  function tag_open($parser, $tag, $attr) {
    $i = count($this->curptr['children']);
    $j = count($this->parents);
    $this->curptr['children'][$i]=array();  // add new child element
    $this->parents[$j] =& $this->curptr;  // store current position as parent
    $this->curptr =& $this->curptr['children'][$i];  // submerge to newly created child element
    $this->curptr['name'] = $tag;
    if (count($attr)>0) $this->curptr['attr'] = $attr;
  }
  
  function tag_close($parser, $tag) {
    $i = count($this->parents);
    if ($i>0) $this->curptr =& $this->parents[$i-1];  // return to parent element
    unset($this->parents[$i-1]);  // clear from list of parents
  }
  
  function cdata($parser, $data) {
    $data = trim($data);
    if (!empty($data)) {
      $this->curptr['value'] .= $data;
    }
  }
  
}

$myparser = new RSSParser('getitems.xml');
$anotherparser = new RSSParser('http://johndoe:secret@myfeeds.com/getfeed.xml');

print_r($myparser->struct);
print_r($anotherparser->struct);

?>

kieran at kieran dot ca

10 years ago


<?

/*

|

| _xml2array - another abstraction layer on xml_parse_into_struct 

|              that returns a nice nested array.

|

|      @param: $xml is a string containing a full xml document

|

|     returns: a nested php array that looks like this: 

|                   

|              array

|              (

|                  [_name] => the name of the tag

|                  [_attributes] => an array of 'attribute'=>'value' combos

|                  [_value] => the text contents of the node

|                  [_children] => an array of these arrays, one for each node.

|              )

|

|       notes: thanks to 'jeffg at activestate dot com' who inspired

|              me to essentially re-write his example code from php.net

|

|           me: Kieran Huggins < kieran[at]kieran[dot]ca >

|

*/

function _xml2array($xml){

    global $keys;

    global $level;

    if(!is_array($xml)){ // init on first run

        $raw_xml = $xml;

        $p = xml_parser_create();

        xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);

        xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);

        xml_parse_into_struct($p, $raw_xml, $xml, $idx);

        xml_parser_free($p);

    }

    for($i=0;$i<count($xml,1);$i++){

        // set the current level

        $level = $xml[$i]['level'];



        if($level<1)break;



        // mark this level's tag in the array

        $keys[$level] = '['.$i.']';

        

        // if we've come down a level, sort output and destroy the upper level

        if(count($keys)>$level) unset($keys[count($keys)]);



        // ignore close tags, they're useless

        if($xml[$i]['type']=="open" || $xml[$i]['type']=="complete"){



            // build the evalstring

            $e = '$output'.implode('[\'_children\']',$keys);



            // set the tag name

            eval($e.'[\'_name\'] = $xml[$i][\'tag\'];');



            // set the attributes

            if($xml[$i]['attributes']){

                eval($e.'[\'_attributes\'] = $xml[$i][\'attributes\'];');

            }

            

            // set the value

            if($xml[$i]['value']){

                eval($e.'[\'_value\'] = trim($xml[$i][\'value\']);');

            }



        }



    }



    return $output;

}

?>

info at gramba dot tv

10 years ago


I was working with the xml2array functions below and had big performance problems. I fired them on a 20MB XML file and had to quit since all approaches of parsing where just too slow (more than 20 Minute parsing etc..). The solution was parsing it manually with preg_match, which increased performance by more than 20 times (processing time about 1 minute).

Rough example function with high performance:

<?php

function customXMLtoARRAY($xmlstring) {

    // get all nodes
    preg_match_all("#<node>(.*?)</node>#s",$xmlstring,$nodes);
    $xmlstring = NULL;

    $allnodes = array();

    // put subnodes into node
    while($nodes = array_pop($nodes[1])) {

        $nodecontent = array();

        // Content1
        preg_match("#<content1>(.*?)</content1>#",$eventreihe,$val);
        $nodecontent['content1'] = $val[1];
        
        $allnodes[] = $nodecontent;
        
    }
    return $allnodes;
}

?>

Chris Hester

10 years ago


The array generated from XML stores not only the elements but also any spaces and linebreaks between the tags. This results in a much longer array. (I had 24 array fields instead of 10!) To cure this use the following code when creating the parser:

<?php
$xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
xml_parser_set_option($xml_parser,XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE,1);
?>

grusin at gmail dot com

10 years ago


Here is a simple patch to peter's xml2array function.

Replace:

<?
case 'open':
$tag_or_id = (array_key_exists ('attributes', xml_elem)) ? $xml_elem['attributes']['ID'] : $xml_elem['tag'];
$ptrs[$level][$tag_or_id] = array ();
$ptrs[$level+1] = & $ptrs[$level][$tag_or_id];
break;
?>

with:

<?
case 'open':
$tag_or_id = (array_key_exists ('attributes', $xml_elem)) ? $xml_elem['attributes']['ID'] : $xml_elem['tag'];
$ptrs[$level][$tag_or_id][] = array ();
$ptrs[$level+1] = & $ptrs[$level][$tag_or_id][count($ptrs[$level][$tag_or_id])-1];
break;
?>

and now code should handle multiple element case :)

Dustin

10 years ago


If you happen to have problems with weird charaters, I added this code to the first line of dUDA's function:

$XML = utf8_decode($XML);

PhF at madmac dot fr

10 years ago


The code previously posted by noob at noobsrule dot com doesn't work when the same tag name is used at different levels.
(but perhaps "$php_used_prefix" was intended for that ?)
For example:
<RatedShipment>
  <TransportationCharges>
    ...
  </TransportationCharges>
  <RatedPackage>
    <TransportationCharges>
      ...
    </TransportationCharges>
  </RatedPackage>
</RatedShipment>
<?php
    $p = xml_parser_create();
    xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
    xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
    xml_parse_into_struct($p, $UPSxml, $values, $idx);
    xml_parser_free($p);
    
    // tracking used keys
    $usedKeys = array();
    $deepLevel = -1;

    // start a php array string (evaluated later)
    $forEvalPrefix = '$xml_array';
    
    // loop throught the value array
    foreach ($values as $key => $val) {
        $tagName = $val['tag']; // pass the key tag into a more friendly looking variable
        $level = $val['level']; // idem
        if($val['type'] == 'open') {
            $deepLevel++; // increase deep level
            $forEvalPrefix .= '[\''. $tagName .'\']';
            
            // begin used keys checks to allow multidimensionatity under the same tag
            (isset($usedKeys[$level][$tagName])) ? $usedKeys[$level][$tagName]++ : $usedKeys[$level][$tagName] = 0;
            $forEvalPrefix .= '['. $usedKeys[$level][$tagName] .']';
        } 
        if($val['type'] == 'complete') {
            ($level > $deepLevel) ? $deepLevel++ : ''; // increase $deepLevel only if current level is bigger
            $tagValue = addslashes($val['value'] ); // format the value for evaluation as a string
            $forEvalSuffix = '[\''. $tagName .'\'] = \''. $tagValue .'\';'; // create a string to append to the current prefix
            $forEval = $forEvalPrefix . $forEvalSuffix; // (without "$php_used_prefix"...)
            eval($forEval); // write the string to the array structure
        }
        if($val['type'] == 'close') {
            unset($usedKeys[$deepLevel]); // Suppress tagname's keys useless
            $deepLevel--;
            $forEvalPrefix = substr($forEvalPrefix, 0, strrpos($forEvalPrefix, '[')); // cut off the used keys node
            $forEvalPrefix = substr($forEvalPrefix, 0, strrpos($forEvalPrefix, '[')); // cut off the end level of the array string prefix
        }
    }
echo '<pre>';
print_r ($xml_array);
echo '</pre>';
?>

MADmac ;-)

peter at elemental dot org

10 years ago


Quick addendum to my post below... The code does *not* handle cases where multiple elements are used without attribute IDs, as is the case with the moldb example.  (It is probably worth noting that some of the other code below doesn't do this either, and is still more complex.)

It is not difficult to add that functionality, but I have yet to find an elegant way to integrate that feature, and since I don't need that functionality at the moment, I'm going leave that as an exercise to the reader.  ;-)

-p.

peter at elemental dot org

10 years ago


Some of the code posted previously seemed absurdly complex, so I thought I'd see if I could simplify things a bit. Here's what I came up with.  (I'm still a PHP newbie, so perhaps I simplified too much.  ;-)  Untested for speed, but it *should* be pretty quick since it uses references instead of lookups or (gack) evals.

Enjoy!

/*
 *  Convert a string containing XML into a nested array
 *
 *  Takes a raw XML string as input
 *  Returns a nested array
 */

function xml2array ($xml_data)
{
    // parse the XML datastring
    $xml_parser = xml_parser_create ();
    xml_parse_into_struct ($xml_parser, $xml_data, $vals, $index);
    xml_parser_free ($xml_parser);

    // convert the parsed data into a PHP datatype
    $params = array();
    $ptrs[0] = & $params;   
    foreach ($vals as $xml_elem) {
        $level = $xml_elem['level'] - 1;
        switch ($xml_elem['type']) {
        case 'open':
            $tag_or_id = (array_key_exists ('attributes', $xml_elem)) ? $xml_elem['attributes']['ID'] : $xml_elem['tag'];
            $ptrs[$level][$tag_or_id] = array ();
            $ptrs[$level+1] = & $ptrs[$level][$tag_or_id];
            break;
        case 'complete':
            $ptrs[$level][$xml_elem['tag']] = (isset ($xml_elem['value'])) ? $xml_elem['value'] : '';
            break;
        }
    }
    
    return ($params);

}

gleber at mapnet dot pl

11 years ago


XMLtoArray created by dudus at onet dot pl was not good enough for me, that's why i decided to create my own version, and here's the result:

<?php

function &last(&$array) {
if (!count($array)) return null;
end($array);
return $array[key($array)];
}

function myParseXML(&$vals, &$dom, &$lev) {
    do {
        $curr = current($vals);
        $lev = $curr['level'];
        switch ($curr['type']) {
            case 'open':
                if (isset($dom[$curr['tag']])) {
                    $tmp = $dom[$curr['tag']];
                    if (!$tmp['__multi'])
                        $dom[$curr['tag']] = array('__multi' => true, $tmp);
                    array_push($dom[$curr['tag']], array());
                    $new =& last($dom[$curr['tag']]);
                } else {
                    $dom[$curr['tag']] = array();
                    $new =& $dom[$curr['tag']];
                }
                next($vals);
                myParseXML(&$vals, $new, $lev);
                break;
            case 'cdata':
                break;
            case 'complete':
                if (!isset($dom[$curr['tag']]))
                    $dom[$curr['tag']] = $curr['value'];
                else {
                    if (is_array($dom[$curr['tag']])) 
                        array_push($dom[$curr['tag']] , $curr['value']);
                    else
                        array_push($dom[$curr['tag']] = array($dom[$curr['tag']]) , $curr['value']);
                }
                break;
            case 'close':
                return;
        }
    }
    while (next($vals)!==FALSE);
}

function MyXMLtoArray($XML) {
       $xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
       xml_parse_into_struct($xml_parser, $XML, $vals);
       xml_parser_free($xml_parser);
       reset($vals);
       $dom = array(); $lev = 0;
       myParseXML($vals, $dom, $lev);
       return $dom;
}

?>

MyXMLtoArray() is that function you should call, other are for "internal" use.

P.S. It's 4-5 time faster then dudus at onet dot pl 's code

noob at noobsrule dot com

11 years ago


This is my first time contributing but I found all the examples either didn't work or were beyond my comprehension.  I also wanted to maintain the XML multi-dimensionality so I could do loops based on keys I was expecting rather than numbers or some other whatnot.  This script is probably way inefficient, but should give you a multidimensional array with a depth that will match the XML source.  Great for situations when you aren't sure what you'll be getting back.  Its also only based on the values array of xml_parse_into_str() using the 3 tag types (open, complete, and close) -- hopefully it will make more sense to other noobs.

Basically it just constructs a string ($php_prefix) that is tweaked if it hits an "open" or "close" tag and evaluated if it hits a "complete" tag.

Thanks.

<?php

# initiate curl session...
$ch = curl_init( "http://yourtargethost" ) or die ( "could not initialize curl" ); 

# set curl options...
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0 );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1 );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $request_str );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 0 );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_REFERER, https://foobar.com" );
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1 );

# execute curl commands...
$curl_result = curl_exec( $ch ) or die ( "could not execute the post" );
curl_close( $ch ); // close curl session 

# pass the XML result into 2 arrays ( index and values )...
$p = xml_parser_create();
xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
xml_parse_into_struct($p, $curl_result, $vals, $index);
xml_parser_free($p);

# create an empty used key tracker...
$used_keys = array();

# start a php array string (evaluated later)...
$php_prefix = "$"."my_array";

# loop through the values array...
foreach ($vals as $key => $val) {
    if( $val['type'] == "open" ) {
        $my_tag = $val['tag']; // pass the key tag into a more friendly looking variable...
        $php_prefix .= "['".$my_tag."']"; # add a new level to the array string...

        # begin used key checks to allow multidimensionality under the same tag, adds a number to the prefix if necessary...
        if( ! array_key_exists( $my_tag, $used_keys ) ) {
            $used_keys[$my_tag] = 0;
            $php_prefix .= "[".$used_keys[$my_tag]."]";
        }else {
            $used_keys[$my_tag]++; // increment the key tracker to avoid overwriting existing key...
            $php_prefix .= "[".$used_keys[$my_tag]."]";
        }
    } elseif( $val['type'] == "complete" ) {
        $my_value = addslashes( $val['value'] ); # format the value for evaluation as a string...
        $php_suffix = "['".$val['tag']."'] = \"".$my_value."\";"; # create a string with the tag and value to append to the current prefix (just used here)...
        $php_str = $php_prefix.$php_used_prefix.$php_suffix;
        eval( $php_str ); # write the string to the array structure...
    }
    if( $val['type'] == "close" ) {
        $php_prefix = substr( $php_prefix, 0, strrpos( $php_prefix, "[" ) ); # cut off the used keys node...
        $php_prefix = substr( $php_prefix, 0, strrpos( $php_prefix, "[" ) ); # cut off the end level of the array string prefix...
    }
}

echo "<pre>";
//print_r ($index);
//echo "<br><br><br>";
//print_r ($vals);
//echo "<br><br><br>";
print_r ($my_array);
echo "</pre>";

?>

dudus at onet dot pl

11 years ago


This function return array from XML. Included attributes and tags in same level.
I wrote this function based on mmustafa code. 

enjoy! 
dUDA

-------------------------------

<?
function XMLtoArray($XML)
{
    $xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
    xml_parse_into_struct($xml_parser, $XML, $vals);
    xml_parser_free($xml_parser);
    // wyznaczamy tablice z powtarzajacymi sie tagami na tym samym poziomie 
    $_tmp='';
    foreach ($vals as $xml_elem)
    { 
        $x_tag=$xml_elem['tag'];
        $x_level=$xml_elem['level'];
        $x_type=$xml_elem['type'];
        if ($x_level!=1 && $x_type == 'close')
        {
            if (isset($multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level]))
                $multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level]=1;
            else
                $multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level]=0;
        }
        if ($x_level!=1 && $x_type == 'complete')
        {
            if ($_tmp==$x_tag) 
                $multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level]=1;
            $_tmp=$x_tag;
        }
    }
    // jedziemy po tablicy
    foreach ($vals as $xml_elem)
    { 
        $x_tag=$xml_elem['tag'];
        $x_level=$xml_elem['level'];
        $x_type=$xml_elem['type'];
        if ($x_type == 'open') 
            $level[$x_level] = $x_tag;
        $start_level = 1;
        $php_stmt = '$xml_array';
        if ($x_type=='close' && $x_level!=1) 
            $multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level]++;
        while($start_level < $x_level)
        {
              $php_stmt .= '[$level['.$start_level.']]';
              if (isset($multi_key[$level[$start_level]][$start_level]) && $multi_key[$level[$start_level]][$start_level]) 
                  $php_stmt .= '['.($multi_key[$level[$start_level]][$start_level]-1).']';
              $start_level++;
        }
        $add='';
        if (isset($multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level]) && $multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level] && ($x_type=='open' || $x_type=='complete'))
        {
            if (!isset($multi_key2[$x_tag][$x_level]))
                $multi_key2[$x_tag][$x_level]=0;
            else
                $multi_key2[$x_tag][$x_level]++;
             $add='['.$multi_key2[$x_tag][$x_level].']'; 
        }
        if (isset($xml_elem['value']) && trim($xml_elem['value'])!='' && !array_key_exists('attributes',$xml_elem))
        {
            if ($x_type == 'open') 
                $php_stmt_main=$php_stmt.'[$x_type]'.$add.'[\'content\'] = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';
            else
                $php_stmt_main=$php_stmt.'[$x_tag]'.$add.' = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';
            eval($php_stmt_main);
        }
        if (array_key_exists('attributes',$xml_elem))
        {
            if (isset($xml_elem['value']))
            {
                $php_stmt_main=$php_stmt.'[$x_tag]'.$add.'[\'content\'] = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';
                eval($php_stmt_main);
            }
            foreach ($xml_elem['attributes'] as $key=>$value)
            {
                $php_stmt_att=$php_stmt.'[$x_tag]'.$add.'[$key] = $value;';
                eval($php_stmt_att);
            }
        }
    }
     return $xml_array;
}    // END XMLtoArray
?>

memandeemail at gmail dot com

11 years ago


a BREAK on right place, will be faster and bugprevent

    /**
    * @return bool
    * @param xml_array $values
    * @param xml_array[reference] $tags
    * @desc Reconstruct xml_parse_into_struct to open and close concept
    */
    function reconstruct_tag($values, &$tags) {
        unset($return);
        foreach ($tags as $tkey => $tvalue) {
            foreach ($tvalue as $vvalue) {
                if ($values[$vvalue]['type'] == 'open' or $values[$vvalue]['type'] == 'complete') {
                    $return[$tkey][] = $vvalue;
                }
                if ($values[$vvalue]['type'] == 'open') {
                    foreach ($tvalue as $tv_value) {
                        if ($values[$tv_value]['type'] == 'close'
                        and $values[$tv_value]['level'] == $values[$vvalue]['level']
                        and $tv_value > $vvalue) {
                            $return[$tkey][] = $tv_value;
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        $tags = $return;
        return (bool) $tags;
    }

memandeemail at gmail dot com

11 years ago


If you have de XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<teste>
    <teste>
        <teste>
        </teste>
    </teste>
</teste>

this function will return this tags:
Array
(
    [teste] => Array
        (
            [0] => 0
            [1] => 1
            [2] => 2
            [3] => 3
            [4] => 4
        )

)

With this function (right below) will convert the struc to OPEN and CLOSE concept.

The New Struct:
Array
(
    [teste] => Array
        (
            [0] => 0
            [1] => 4
            [2] => 1
            [3] => 3
            [4] => 2
        )

)
The Function:
/**
 * @return bool
 * @param xml_array $values
 * @param xml_array[reference] $tags
 * @desc Reconstruct xml_parse_into_struct
*/
function reconstruct_tag($values, &$tags) {
    unset($return);
    foreach ($tags as $tkey => $tvalue) {
        foreach ($tvalue as $vvalue) {
            if ($values[$vvalue]['type'] == 'open' or $values[$vvalue]['type'] == 'complete') {
                $return[$tkey][] = $vvalue;
            }
            if ($values[$vvalue]['type'] == 'open') {
                foreach ($tvalue as $tv_value) {
                    if ($values[$tv_value]['type'] == 'close'
                    and $values[$tv_value]['level'] == $values[$vvalue]['level']) {
                        $return[$tkey][] = $tv_value;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    $tags = $return;
    return (bool) $tags;
}

Ahh, DO NOT forget this comment:

jukkaho at mail dot student dot oulu dot fi
29-Jun-2004 12:17 
Everyone seems to forget the return value of this function (including people making examples!), but it is there for a reason:
0 if failed (invalid XML), 1 if succeeded.

Return value really is an integer, be careful with those === operators.

happyseb at free dot fr

11 years ago


I would just add something about the solution proposed by "gordon at kanazawa dot ac dot jp".

Something went wrong about the fact that "cdata" are treated the same way as "complete" in the xml_get_children first and in the xml_get_child then.

When ?
with this method, something like this :
<tagA>
  <tagB>valueB</tagB>
  valueA
  <tagC>valueC</tagC>
</tagA>
is considered as the same thing as
<tagA>
  <tagB>valueB</tagB>
  <tagA>valueA</tagA>
  <tagC>valueC</tagC>
</tagA>

The algorithm is nomore bijective.

Even if it might not be perfect :-) i propose a little modification of the xml_get_child function :

function xml_get_child(&$v, $children=NULL) {
      $c = array(); // the "child"
      if (isset($v['tag']) && $v['type'] != 'cdata') $c['tag'] = $v['tag'];
      if (isset($v['value'])) $c['value'] = $v['value'];
      if (isset($v['attributes'])) $c['attributes'] = $v['attributes'];
      if (is_array($children)) $c['children'] = $children;
      return $c;
}

moreover, the following function will take the tree (made from the xml_get_tree function) as a parameter and build the xml content back

    /*
    // setTree
    // set xml Tree from a well-formed array
    // manage indentation
    // Parameters are :
    // $1 (needed) : Tree to transform
    // $2 (optional) : Indentation type (default is one tabulation)
    // $3 (optional) : First indent (default is empty string)
    */

    function setTree($Atree, $indentType = '    ', $Sindent = '')
    {
      if (! isset ($Atree['tag']) && isset ($Atree['value'])) return ($Sindent.trim($Atree['value'])."\r\n") ;
      else {
        $Stemp = $Sindent.'<'.$Atree['tag'].' ' ;
        if (isset ($Atree['attributes']) && is_array ($Atree['attributes'])) {
          foreach ($Atree['attributes'] as $Aattribute => $Svalue) $Stemp .= $Aattribute.'="'.$Svalue.'" ' ;
        }
        if (! isset ($Atree['children']) && ! isset ($Atree['value'])) $Stemp .= '/>'."\r\n" ;
        else {
          $Stemp .= '>'."\r\n" ;
          if (isset ($Atree['value'])) $Stemp .= $Sindent.$indentType.trim($Atree['value'])."\r\n" ;
          if (isset ($Atree['children']) && is_array ($Atree['children']))
            foreach ($Atree['children'] as $Achild) $Stemp .= $this->setTree($Achild, $indentType, $Sindent.$indentType) ;
          $Stemp .= $Sindent.'</'.$Atree['tag'].'>'."\r\n" ;
        }
        return ($Stemp) ;
      }
    }

sdh33 at cornell dot edu

11 years ago


(The previous post I wrote was incorrect.  I fix that herein)
I used the algorithm from stephane for writing back to a file, but ran into the following problem.  My original XML looks like

<ENTRY id="1"> ... </ENTRY><ENTRY id="2"> ... </ENTRY>

This got saved back as

<1> ... </1><2> ... </2>,

which expat doesn't like.  So I propose the following modification:

function writeXmlToFile($data, $f, $niv = 0) {
  foreach($data as $name => $elem) {
    if (preg_match("/\A[0-9]/",$name)) {
      $open = "ENTRY id=\"$name\""; $name = "ENTRY";
    } else {
      $open = $name;
    }
    if(is_array($elem)) {
      fwrite($f, str_repeat("  ", $niv)."<".$open.">"."\n");
      writeXmlToFile($elem, $f, $niv + 1);
      fwrite($f, str_repeat("  ", $niv)."</".$name.">"."\n");
    } else {
      fwrite($f, str_repeat("  ", $niv)."<".$open.">".$elem."</".$name.">"."\n");
    }
  }
}

stephane dot dekeyzer at noemail dot com

12 years ago


for writing the array of mmustafa back to a xml file, use this code:

function writeXmlFile($fileName, $struct){
  $f = fopen($fileName, "w");
  writeXmlToFile($struct, $f);
  fclose($f);
}

function writeXmlToFile($data, $f, $niv = 0){
  foreach($data as $name => $elem){
    if(is_array($elem)){
      fwrite($f, str_repeat("  ", $niv)."<".$name.">"."\n");
      writeXmlToFile($elem, $f, $niv + 1);
      fwrite($f, str_repeat("  ", $niv)."</".$name.">"."\n");
    }
    else{
      fwrite($f, str_repeat("  ", $niv)."<".$name.">".$elem."</".$name.">"."\n");
    }
  }
}

gordon at kanazawa dot ac dot jp

12 years ago


Many thanks to "dave at ovumdesign dot com" for his excellent routines based on the fine work of "gdemartini at bol dot com". I offer a further refinement below, which removes the duplication of the code to create a child node. The resulting tree is the same as in Dave's earlier version and so can be compacted using his "xml_condense_tree"

function xml_get_child(&$v, $children=NULL) {
   $c = array(); // the "child"
   if (isset($v['tag'])) $c['tag'] = $v['tag'];
   if (isset($v['value'])) $c['value'] = $v['value'];
   if (isset($v['attributes'])) $c['attributes'] = $v['attributes'];
   if (is_array($children)) $c['children'] = $children;
   return $c;
}
function xml_get_children(&$values, &$i) {
   $children = array();
   while ($i < count($values)) {
      $v = &$values[$i++];
      switch ($v['type']) {
         case 'cdata':
         case 'complete':
            $children[] = xml_get_child($v);
            break;
         case 'open':
            $children[] = xml_get_child($v, xml_get_children($values, $i));
            break;
         case 'close':
            break 2; // leave "while" loop
      }
   }
   return $children;
}
function xml_get_tree($file) {
   $data = join('', file($file));

   $p = xml_parser_create();
   xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
   xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE,  1);
   xml_parse_into_struct($p, $data, $values);
   xml_parser_free($p);

   return xml_get_children($values, $i=0);
}

mmustafa at vsnl dot com

12 years ago


A small and simple php code to convert the raw array returned by xml_parse_into_struct into a proper data structure ..

<?php
$file = "data.xml";
$xml_parser = xml_parser_create();

if (!($fp = fopen($file, "r"))) {
    die("could not open XML input");
}

$data = fread($fp, filesize($file));
fclose($fp);
xml_parse_into_struct($xml_parser, $data, $vals, $index);
xml_parser_free($xml_parser);

$params = array();
$level = array();
foreach ($vals as $xml_elem) {
  if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'open') {
    if (array_key_exists('attributes',$xml_elem)) {
      list($level[$xml_elem['level']],$extra) = array_values($xml_elem['attributes']);
    } else {
      $level[$xml_elem['level']] = $xml_elem['tag'];
    }
  }
  if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'complete') {
    $start_level = 1;
    $php_stmt = '$params';
    while($start_level < $xml_elem['level']) {
      $php_stmt .= '[$level['.$start_level.']]';
      $start_level++;
    }
    $php_stmt .= '[$xml_elem[\'tag\']] = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';
    eval($php_stmt);
  }
}

echo "<pre>";
print_r ($params);
echo "</pre>";
?>

Converts an XML document like ..

<country id="ZZ">
<name>My Land</name>
<location>15E</location>
<area>40000</area>
<state1>
<name>Hi State</name>
<area>1000</area>
<population>2000</population>
<city1>
<location>13E</location>
<population>500</population>
<area>500</area>
</city1>
<city2>
<location>13E</location>
<population>500</population>
<area>5000</area>
</city2>
</state1>
<state2>
<name>Low State</name>
<area>3000</area>
<population>20000</population>
<city1>
<location>15E</location>
<population>5000</population>
<area>1500</area>
</city1>
</state2>
</country>

To a php datastructure like ..

Array
(
    [ZZ] => Array
        (
            [NAME] => My Land
            [LOCATION] => 15E
            [AREA] => 40000
            [STATE1] => Array
                (
                    [NAME] => Hi State
                    [AREA] => 1000
                    [POPULATION] => 2000
                    [CITY1] => Array
                        (
                            [LOCATION] => 13E
                            [POPULATION] => 500
                            [AREA] => 500
                        )

                    [CITY2] => Array
                        (
                            [LOCATION] => 13E
                            [POPULATION] => 500
                            [AREA] => 5000
                        )

                )

            [STATE2] => Array
                (
                    [NAME] => Low State
                    [AREA] => 3000
                    [POPULATION] => 20000
                    [CITY1] => Array
                        (
                            [LOCATION] => 15E
                            [POPULATION] => 5000
                            [AREA] => 1500
                        )

                )

        )

)

Anonymous

12 years ago


actually, using the notation

$object->property is the right one

and you can use it always, preventing errors with arrays

Eric

12 years ago


Yet another XML -> nested array converter.

This is based on http://www.devdump.com/phpxml.php, but adds features while reducing code complexity.

It can take several forms of input:
 - string (buffer)
 - file handle (pipe)
 - file name -or-
 - URL

It can optionally collapse arrays of same-named tags to a single element if there is only one tag with a given name.

It can optionally preserve tag order for XML applications where position is significant, such as CallXML.

XMLParser.obj at:
http://eric.pollmann.net/work/public_domain/

Corrections and suggestions enthusiastically welcomed.  :)

Adam Tylmad

12 years ago


I've just debugged and optimized my xmlparser.



gdemartini's xml-example generates this structure:



stdClass Object

(

    [FORM] => stdClass Object

        (

            [SECTION] => stdClass Object

                (

                    [NAME] => Data

                    [EDITFIELD] => stdClass Object

                        (

                            [LABEL] => Text:

                            [NAME] => poll_text

                            [LENGTH] => 255

                            [SIZE] => 56

                            [REQUIRED] => T

                        )



                    [MEMOFIELD] => stdClass Object

                        (

                            [LABEL] => Options

                            [NAME] => options

                            [COLS] => 56

                            [ROWS] => 5

                            [REQUIRED] => T

                        )

                )

        )

)



the moldb example generates this structure:



stdClass Object

(

    [MOLDB] => stdClass Object

        (

            [MOLECULE] => Array

                (

                    [0] => stdClass Object

                        (

                            [NAME] => Alanine

                            [SYMBOL] => ala

                            [CODE] => A

                            [TYPE] => hydrophobic

                        )



                    [1] => stdClass Object

                        (

                            [NAME] => Lysine

                            [SYMBOL] => lys

                            [CODE] => K

                            [TYPE] => charged

                        )

                )

        )

)



here is the code. enjoy!



<?php



class XMLParser {

    var $path;

    var $result;



    function cleanString($string) {

        return trim(str_replace("'", "&#39;", $string));

    }

    

    function XMLParser($encoding, $data) {

        $this->path = "\$this->result";

        $this->index = 0;

        

        $xml_parser = xml_parser_create($encoding);

        xml_set_object($xml_parser, &$this);

        xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser, 'startElement', 'endElement');

        xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser, 'characterData');



        xml_parse($xml_parser, $data, true);

        xml_parser_free($xml_parser);

    }

    

    function startElement($parser, $tag, $attributeList) {

        $this->path .= "->".$tag;

        eval("\$data = ".$this->path.";");

        if (is_array($data)) {

            $index = sizeof($data);

            $this->path .= "[".$index."]";

        } else if (is_object($data)) {

            eval($this->path." = array(".$this->path.");");

            $this->path .= "[1]";

        }



        foreach($attributeList as $name => $value)

            eval($this->path."->".$name. " = '".XMLParser::cleanString($value)."';");

    }

    

    function endElement($parser, $tag) {

        $this->path = substr($this->path, 0, strrpos($this->path, "->"));

    }

    

    function characterData($parser, $data) {

        if ($data = XMLParser::cleanString($data))

            eval($this->path." = '$data';");

    }

}



?>

plusplus7 at hotmail dot com

12 years ago


Quick and dirty function to get original file from $vals array in manual example. Build on this for custom parsing of individual elements (something like this should be built-in IMO).

<pre>
function parseVals($vals){
    foreach($vals as $valobj){
        if($valobj['type']=='open' || $valobj['type']=='complete'){
            $retstr .= '<'.$valobj['tag'];
            if(is_array($valobj['attributes'])){ 
                foreach($valobj['attributes'] as $key=>$val){
                    $retstr .= " $key=\"$val\"";
                }
            }
        }
        if($valobj['type']=='open'){
            $retstr .= '>'.$valobj['value'];
        }elseif($valobj['type']=='complete' && $valobj['value']){
            $retstr .= '>'.$valobj['value'].'</'.$valobj['tag'].'>';
        }elseif($valobj['type']=='complete'){
            $retstr .= ' />';
        }elseif($valobj['type']=='cdata'){
            $retstr .= $valobj['value'];
        }elseif($valobj['type']=='close'){
            $retstr .= '</'.$valobj['tag'].'>';
        }

    }
    return $retstr;
}

</pre>

masuod_a at hotmail dot com

13 years ago


wanna load object from xml file? this function take a tree returned by xml_get_tree() [dave@ovumdesign.com's version] and return an object.
it can't work with attributes, i hate attributes (except id), but may be useful for you.

- how to use :
------------------------- xml file -------------
<config>
   <images>
      <image id="1">
        <name>my pet</name>
        <file>pet001.jpg</file>
      </image>
      <image id="2">
        <name>harry's pet</name>
        <file>pet003.jpg</file>
      </image>
   </images>
   <library>lib_functions.php</library>
</config>
----------------------------------------------
$config=xml_to_object($xml_tree);
$config->library;    #return "lib_functions.php"
$config->images->image__1->name; #return "my pet"
----------------------------------------------
function xml_to_object($xml_tree,$root=false){
             $object_name=$xml_tree['tag'];
             foreach ($xml_tree['children'] as $children){
                          $child_id=$children['attributes']['id'];
                          $child_name=$children['tag'];
                          $child_name.=($child_id) ? "__".$child_id:'';

                          if (is_array($children['children'])) {    
                                      $child_object=xml_to_object($children);
                                      $temp_object->$child_name=$child_object;
                          } else {
                                    $temp_object->$child_name=$children['value'];
                         }
             }

             if (!$root)
                          $xml_object=$temp_object;
             else       $xml_object->$object_name=$temp_object;

             return $xml_object;
}

also you can use this function for loading array from xml , but i suggest you to use kris@h3x.com's functions[ http://www.devdump.com/phpxml.php ].

function xml_to_array($xml_tree,$root=false){
   $array_name=$xml_tree['tag'];
   foreach ($xml_tree['children'] as $children){
       $child_id=$children['attributes']['id'];
       $child_name=$children['tag'];
       $child_name.=($child_id) ? "__".$child_id:'';
       if (is_array($children['children'])) {
            $child_array=xml_to_array($children);
            $temp_array[$child_name]=$child_array;
       } else {            
            $temp_array[$child_name]=$children['value'];
       }
   }
    
   if (!$root)
      $xml_array=$temp_array;
   else
      $xml_array[$array_name]=$temp_array; 
    
    return $xml_array;
}

bisqwit at iki dot fi dot not dot for dot ads dot invalid

13 years ago


I made my own xml2tree()-function.
The difference to the previously suggested ones on this manual page is that this creates a tree where the tags are keys.

Example input:

<tree>
 <leaf name="gruu"> pl�� </leaf>
 <animal type="cat" />
</tree>

Example output:

Array
( 'tree' => Array
     ( 0 => Array
          ( 'children' => Array
               ( 'leaf' => Array
                    ( 0 => Array
                         ( 'attrs' => Array('name' => 'gruu'),
                           'values' => Array(0 => ' pl�� ')
                    )    ),
                 'animal' => Array
                    ( 0 => Array
                         ( 'attrs' => Array('type' => 'cat')
)    )   )    )    )   )

function xml2tree2($string)
{
  $parser = xml_parser_create();
  xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
  xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
  xml_parse_into_struct($parser, $string, $vals, $index);
  xml_parser_free($parser);
  
  $stack = array( array() );
  $stacktop = 0;
  $parent = array();
  foreach($vals as $val)
  {
    $type = $val['type'];
    if($type=='open' || $type=='complete')
    {
      // open tag
      $stack[$stacktop++] = $tagi;
      $tagi = array('tag' => $val['tag']);

      if(isset($val['attributes']))  $tagi['attrs'] = $val['attributes'];      
      if(isset($val['value']))
        $tagi['values'][] = $val['value'];
    }
    if($type=='complete' || $type=='close')
    {
      // finish tag
      $tags[] = $oldtagi = $tagi; 
      $tagi = $stack[--$stacktop];
      $oldtag = $oldtagi['tag'];  
      unset($oldtagi['tag']);
      $tagi['children'][$oldtag][] = $oldtagi;
      $parent = $tagi;
    }
    if($type=='cdata')
    {
      $tagi['values'][] = $val['value'];
    }
  }
  return $parent['children'];
}        

Ps: Note that the xml parsing for some reason chokes if the values contain <> (even inside ""). You need to escape them as &lt; and &gt;.
Same for & (for obvious reasons). Escape it as &amp;.
For example "&nbsp;" should be written as "&amp;nbsp;".

joeldegan at yahoo dot com

13 years ago


Using one of the nice function above, I was able to get these two great structures below on nmap info for a machine and then the PID lists for each open port.. Very handy for my current project.

$test = `nmap -sU -sS localhost -oX -`;
$ret = xml2array($test);
$z=0;
while (list($key,$val)=each($ret["host"][0][3]["children"])){
    if ($val["tag"] == "PORT"){
        $new[$z]["PROTOCOL"] = $val["attributes"]["PROTOCOL"];
        $new[$z]["PORT"] = $val["attributes"]["PORTID"];
        
        //echo $val["attributes"]["PROTOCOL"]."\n";    
        //echo $val["attributes"]["PORTID"]."\n";
        $z++;
    }//fi
}//wend

print_r($new);

function port_pids($portnum){
    $ret = `lsof -i :$portnum -F pc`;
    $ret = explode("\n", $ret);
    $z=0;
    for($a=0;$a<count($ret);$a++){
        $port = $ret[$a];
        $a++;
        $com = $ret[$a];
        $new[$z]["PID"]=substr($port, 1);
        $new[$z]["COMMAND"]=substr($com, 1);
        $z++;
    }//wend
    return $new;
}//end function

print_r(port_pids("3306"));

no at chance dot com

13 years ago


Thanks to gdemartini's tree algorithm , I was able to create a variation that display's the information in a way that allows you to then easily parse the information with less code and process time. Here's the variation and I've also posted a quick function at the bottom that allows you to visually display complex arrays in human readable format. Hope this helps someone as much as gdemartini's functions helped me.

I decided to post it on my server as opposed to the forums as it was too large and needed some good html formatting.  It can found at http://www.devdump.com/phpxml.php .

ambi at gmx dot de

13 years ago


Sorry.. unreachable and unneeded code in my posting above :-)
Here is the fixed version:
function xml_condense_tree($tree) {
    if ($tree["children"]) {
            unset($nodecounters);
            foreach ($tree['children'] as $index => $node) {
                if (!isset($nodecounters[$node['tag']]))
                $nodecounters[$node['tag']]=1;
                else $nodecounters[$node['tag']]++;
            }
        foreach ($tree['children'] as $index => $node) {
            if (isset($node['children'])) {
                $tree['children'][$index] = xml_condense_tree($node);
            } elseif (isset($node['value']) and !$node['attributes'] and $nodecounters[$node['tag']]==1) {
                $tree['values'][$node['tag']] = $node['value'];
                unset($tree['children'][$index]);
            }
        }
    }
    if (!$tree['children']) unset($tree['children']);
    
    return $tree;
}

Anonymous

13 years ago


This is based on a comment above by mh@mainlab.de.  This version makes more sense to me and I included a few comments that might make it more usefull for specific purposes.

// Look through $vals and $index,
// generated by parse_xml_data(),
// for $location.  $location resembles a unix path.
// E.g. "my/xml/path/to/my/data".
// Note: This is NOT a full-feature xml utility.
// Your path must be unique in the xml data
// and the tags must not contain slashes.
//
// returns: cdata from last element of $location
//          or NULL.
function get_xml_values($vals, $index, $location) {
  $location = explode('/', $location);
  $location_level = count($location);
  for ($n=0; $n<$location_level; ++$n) {
    $val_indexes=$index[$location[$n]];
    $good=0;
    for ($i=0; $i<count($val_indexes); ++$i) {
      $v = $vals[$val_indexes[$i]];
      // level is 1 based, n is 0 based:
      if ($v['level']-1 == $n) {
        if ($v['type'] == 'open') {
          // We found an open tag at the correct level.
          $good=1;
          break; // Remove break to avoid 'open' hiding
                 // 'complete' at last $n. (Speed Vs. Robustness:
                 // For now, I'm going with speed).
        }
        if ($v['type'] == 'complete') {
          // We found it, after finding all the prior elements:
          // You may want to change this to
          // return $v
          // so you can call $v['value'] and $v['attributes']
          return $v['value'];
        }
      }
    }
    if (!$good) {
      return NULL;
    }
  }
}

farinspace-at-hotmail-dot-com

13 years ago


Wow, took a while to consume all of this. I am a noobie at XML, in fact i just really started working with it today. I went ahead and added to the above code by gdemartini@bol.com.br. I also added the update by nyk@cowham.net.

Added 'value' => $vals[$i]['value'] to the open case, as some nodes have both cdata as well as a children node. In previous versions of the functions the cdata of a node(a) that also had children would get stored in the children's array of the parent node(a). Now only children values are in the children array and the cdata is in the value key of the parent node(a).

Added 'value' => $vals[$i]['value'] to tree array as the vals array produced by PHP includes a value to the top most node if no children exist (for completeness).

Also, using xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE,1) will strip all white space from both around the XML tags as well as inside the cdata. I added a piece of code by waldo@wh-e.com to take care of this. All SPACE characters are now only stripped from around the XML tags and cdata spacing is retained.

CODE:
***************************************

function GetChildren($vals, &$i) {

    $children = array();

    while (++$i < sizeof($vals)) {

        // compair type
        switch ($vals[$i]['type']) {

            case 'cdata':
                $children[] = $vals[$i]['value'];
                break;
            case 'complete':
                $children[] = array(
                    'tag' => $vals[$i]['tag'], 
                    'attributes' => $vals[$i]['attributes'], 
                    'value' => $vals[$i]['value']
                );
                break;
            case 'open':
                $children[] = array(
                    'tag' => $vals[$i]['tag'], 
                    'attributes' => $vals[$i]['attributes'], 
                    'value' => $vals[$i]['value'], 
                    'children' => GetChildren($vals, $i)
                );        
                break;
            case 'close':
                return $children;
        }
    }
}

function GetXMLTree($file) {

    $data = implode('', file($file));

    // by: waldo@wh-e.com - trim space around tags not within
    $data = eregi_replace(">"."[[:space:]]+"."<","><",$data);

    // XML functions
    $p = xml_parser_create();

    // by: anony@mous.com - meets XML 1.0 specification
    xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
    xml_parse_into_struct($p, $data, &$vals, &$index);
    xml_parser_free($p);

    $i = 0;
    $tree = array();
    $tree[] = array(
        'tag' => $vals[$i]['tag'], 
        'attributes' => $vals[$i]['attributes'], 
        'value' => $vals[$i]['value'], 
        'children' => GetChildren($vals, $i)
    );

    return $tree;
}

***************************************

dave at ovumdesign dot com

14 years ago


Here is another variation on gdemartini@bol.com.br's nice tree algorithm. I have included nyk@cowham.net's "cdata" suggestion. I made a few changes to suppress unitialized variable warnings with error_reporting(E_ALL), and made a few stylistic changes.

There are two functional modifications as well. The first is the added option to expat to turn off "case folding", since XML is technically a case-sensitive language. The second is the returned tree - instead of returning a single-element list (an array with index 0 pointing to the top node) like the original algorithm, it returns the top node itself. This saves you an unnecessary level of indirection.

function xml_get_children($vals, &$i) {
    $children = array();
    if (isset($vals[$i]['value'])) $children[] = $vals[$i]['value'];

    while (++$i < count($vals)) {
        switch ($vals[$i]['type']) {
        case 'cdata':
            $children[] = $vals[$i]['value'];
            break;

        case 'complete':
            $children[] = array(
                'tag'        => $vals[$i]['tag'],
                'attributes' => isset($vals[$i]['attributes'])?
                                $vals[$i]['attributes'] : null,
                'value'      => $vals[$i]['value'],
            );
            break;

        case 'open':
            $children[] = array(
                'tag'        => $vals[$i]['tag'],
                'attributes' => isset($vals[$i]['attributes'])?
                                $vals[$i]['attributes'] : null,
                'children'   => xml_get_children($vals, $i),
            );
            break;

        case 'close':
            return $children;
        }
    }
}

function xml_get_tree($file) {
    $data = join('', file($file));

    $parser = xml_parser_create();
    xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
    xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE,   1);
    xml_parse_into_struct($parser, $data, $vals, $index);
    xml_parser_free($parser);

    return array(
        'tag'        => $vals[0]['tag'],
        'attributes' => isset($vals[0]['attributes'])?
                        $vals[0]['attributes'] : null,
        'children'   => xml_get_children($vals, $i = 0),
    );
}

This function takes a tree returned by xml_get_tree() and simplifies it similarly to voncken@mailandnews.com and oknapp@soly.de's suggestions. It finds any nodes that expat considered "complete" (childless) and contain no attributes, and it moves the tag name (as the key) and value into an element in the parent node's "values" array.

For example: 
$tree = xml_get_tree('moldb.xml');   
$tree = xml_condense_tree($tree); 
echo $tree['children'][1]['values']['name'];

Outputs:
Lysine

function xml_condense_tree($tree) {
    foreach ($tree['children'] as $index => $node) {
        if (isset($node['children'])) {
            $tree['children'][$index] = xml_condense_tree($node);

        } elseif (isset($node['value']) and !$node['attributes']) {
            $tree['values'][$node['tag']] = $node['value'];
            unset($tree['children'][$index]);
        }
    }
     
    if (!$tree['children']) unset($tree['children']);
    return $tree;
}

Enjoy,
Dave

lpatrick

7 years ago


@ dale at ucsc dot edu
I modified your code for entries like <caption>Value</caption>
<?php
$o='';
foreach( $vals as $tag ){
    //tab space:
    for($i=1; $i < $tag['level'];$i++)
        $o.="\t";
    if($tag['type']!='close'){
        if($tag['type']!='cdata')
            $o.='<'.$tag['tag'];
        if(isset($tag['attributes'])){
            foreach($tag['attributes'] as $attr=>$aval){
                $o.=' '.$attr.'="'.$aval.'"';
            }
        }
        if($tag['type']!='cdata'){
            $o.=($tag['type']=='complete' && (!isset($tag['value']) || $tag['value']==''))?'/>':'>';
        }
        $o.=(isset($tag['value']))?$tag['value']:'';
        if($tag['type']!='cdata'){
            $o.=($tag['type']=='complete' && (isset($tag['value']) && $tag['value']<>''))?'</'.$tag['tag'].'>':'';
        }
        $o.="\n";
    }else{
        $o.='</'.$tag['tag'].'>'."\n";
    }
}
?>

Llorenc

7 years ago


Many examples below using this function check if a given tag returned is of type "cdata". It seems to me nowadays CDATA sections are not detected by all implementations, if any. In the servers I could test (FreeBSD 6.2 with PHP 5.2.6 and libxml 2.6.26 or PHP 4.4.8 and expat 2.0.0 - MacOSX 10.5.4 with PHP 5.2.6 and libxml 2.6.16) my CDATA sections were reported as being of type "complete".

This problem was reported earlier as a bug (#26188), but was discarded because "the behaviour is quite dependent on the backend XML parsing implementation" (sic).

So if you want to detect CDATA sections and not depend on a given implementation, you'll have to forget this function and use xml_parse and xml_set_character_data_handler instead.

POST at PSPAETH dot DE

7 years ago


I wrote a simple function which totally flattens any xml structure. You can then directly get the data or use regular expression functions to fetch data from the output. E.g., if the input is
   <gallery xmlns='http://www.pspaeth.de/joomlaPlugins/psg'>
        <g imageDir='einsatzGallerie'></g>
          <caption for="f1.jpg"}This is picture number 1</caption>
          <caption for="f2.jpg"}This is picture number 2</caption>
        </g>
   </gallery>
the output will be an array:
   ['.gallery0@xmlns']=>  
      ".gallery0@xmlns=http://www.pspaeth.de/joomlaPlugins/psg" 
   ['.gallery0.g0@imageDir']=>
      ".gallery0.g0@imageDir=einsatzGallerie" 
   ['.gallery0.g0.caption0@for']=>
      ".gallery0.g0.caption0@for=f1.jpg" 
   ['.gallery0.g0.caption0']=>
      ".gallery0.g0.caption0=This is picture number 1" 
   ['.gallery0.g0.caption1@for']=>  
      ".gallery0.g0.caption1@for=f2.jpg" 
   ['.gallery0.g0.caption1']=>  
      ".gallery0.g0.caption1=This is picture number 2" 

Here the code:
<?php
function _xmlToArray($xml) {
   $parser = xml_parser_create('UTF-8'); // UTF-8 or ISO-8859-1
   xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0); 
   xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
   xml_parse_into_struct($parser, $xml, $values);
   xml_parser_free($parser);
     
   $return = array();
   $stack = '';
   $attrs = array();
   $levelCounters = array(0);
   foreach($values as $val) {
     if($val['type'] == "open") {
       $ind = array_pop($levelCounters);
       $stack = $stack . "." . $val['tag'] . $ind;
       if ($val['attributes']) {
           foreach($val['attributes'] as $attrKey => $attrVal) 
             $return[$stack . '@' . $attrKey] = $stack . '@' . $attrKey . "=" .
                $attrVal;
       }
       array_push($levelCounters,$ind+1);
       array_push($levelCounters,0);           
     } elseif($val['type'] == "close") {
       $stack = substr($stack,0,strrpos($stack,'.'));
     } elseif($val['type'] == "complete") {
       $ind = array_pop($levelCounters);
       $stack = $stack . "." . $val['tag'] . $ind;
       if ($val['attributes']) {
           foreach($val['attributes'] as $attrKey => $attrVal) 
             $return[$stack . '@' . $attrKey] = $stack . '@' . $attrKey . "=" .
                $attrVal;
       }
       $return[$stack] = $stack . "=" . $val['value'];
       $stack = substr($stack,0,strrpos($stack,'.'));
       array_push($levelCounters,$ind+1);
     }
   }
   return $return;
}   
?>

Anonymous

7 years ago


@jemptymethod:

I found only one downfall to your function. If you have duplicates, the first one cannot be accessed iteratively.

I added the following to fix the problem:

<?php
...
        else if (is_array($parent['children'][$tag])) {
            if(!isset($parent['children'][$tag][0])) {
                $oldSingle = $parent['children'][$tag];
                $parent['children'][$tag] = null;
                $parent['children'][$tag][] = $oldSingle;
                
            }
              $parent['children'][$tag][] = $pop['children'];
        }
...
?>

cesaralcaide at gmail dot com

8 years ago


I didn't fount an appropiate xml2array translaction for my purpose, so I wrote this:

(convert an xml string to an associative array allowing multiple elements with the same name)

/////////////////////////////////// Inicio XML 
//
//
//
// Convierte un XML en un array asociativo cuyos elementos son arrays
// (para permitir varios elementos del mismo nombre)
//
// Limitación: el elemento "attributos" no puede aparecer en el XML, pues corresponde al
// de attribs de un tag (un Tag empieza con "T",no "t")
//
////////////////////////////////////

function xml_analiza($xml) {
 global $xml_resul,$xml_n,$xml_cont,$xml_attr;
 $xml_n = 0;
 $xml_resul = array();
 $xml_cont = array();
 $xml_attr = array();
 $p = xml_parser_create();
 //Si quisiéramos distinguir Mayúsculas-Minúsculas en los nombres de etiquetas:
 xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
 xml_set_element_handler($p, "xml_inicio", "xml_fin");
 xml_set_character_data_handler($p, "xml_char");

 // Recorta hasta el primer tag del XML:
 $i = instr($xml,"<" . "?xml");
 if (!$i) return array();
 $j = instr($i,$xml,"?" . ">");
 if (!$j) return array();
 $xml = substr($xml,$j+2);

 if (!xml_parse($p, $xml))
  alarma("URG","xml_analiza","XML error: " . xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($p))
   . " en la línea " . xml_get_current_line_number($p) . " ($xml)");
 xml_parser_free($p);
 if (!sizeof($xml_resul)) return array();
 return $xml_resul[0];
}

function xml_inicio($p, $nombre, $atributos) {
 global $xml_resul,$xml_n,$xml_cont,$xml_attr;
 $xml_n++;
 $xml_resul[] = array();
 $xml_cont[] = "";
 $xml_attr[] = $atributos;
}

function xml_fin($p, $nombre) {
 global $xml_resul,$xml_n,$xml_cont,$xml_attr;
 $xml_n--;
 $nuevo = array_pop($xml_resul);
 $nombre = $nombre;
 if ($nombre == "attributos") alarma("URG","xml_analiza","Tag con nombre no permitido (attributos)");
 $conte = array_pop($xml_cont);
 $attrib = array_pop($xml_attr);
 if ($conte) $xml_resul[$xml_n][$nombre][] = $conte;
 else {
  if ($nuevo) {
   if ($attrib) $nuevo["attributos"][] = $attrib;
   $xml_resul[$xml_n][$nombre][] = $nuevo;
  }
  else
   $xml_resul[$xml_n][$nombre][] = "";
 }
}

function xml_char($p, $data) {
 global $xml_cont;
 $xml_cont[sizeof($xml_cont)-1] .= trim(str_replace("\n","",$data));
}

function xml_a($a) {
 // Devuelve un elemento del array XML, p.e.: xml_a($v,"FichaCircuito","Red",0)
 $n = func_num_args();
 for ($i=1;$i<$n;$i++) {
  $b = func_get_arg($i);
  if (isset($a[$b]))
   $a = $a[$b];
  else {
   if (!isset($a[0][$b][0])) return "";
   $a = $a[0][$b];
  }
 }
 return $a;
}

tsivert

9 years ago


To John.

The reason that you only get the last item is that you declare a array of one element that is constantly overwritten by the last element...

I don't know if you want to put the items as two different childarrays of the parent or if you want to put the items in one childarray with two elements.

To put the items in two different childarrays, change the line
$php_stmt .= '[$level['.$start_level.']]';
to 
$php_stmt .= '[$level['.$start_level.']][]';

To put in same childarray change line 
$php_stmt .= '[$xml_elem[\'tag\']] = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';
to 
$php_stmt .= '[$xml_elem[\'tag\']][] = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';

Hope this helps you!

tsivert

john

9 years ago


I'm currently using this parser and it's working the way I want it to, but it has a little glitch and I was hoping maybe someone can let me know why.

Here's the parser and use for example purposes the following input:

$xml_response = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<test>
    <item>First Item</item>
    <item>Second Item</item>
</test>'

$xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
xml_parse_into_struct($xml_parser, $xml_response, $vals, $index);
xml_parser_free($xml_parser);

$params = array();
$level = array();
foreach ($vals as $xml_elem) {
  if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'open') {
   if (array_key_exists('attributes',$xml_elem)) {
     list($level[$xml_elem['level']],$extra) = array_values($xml_elem['attributes']);
   } else {
     $level[$xml_elem['level']] = $xml_elem['tag'];
   }
  }
  if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'complete') {
   $start_level = 1;
   $php_stmt = '$params';
   while($start_level < $xml_elem['level']) {
     $php_stmt .= '[$level['.$start_level.']]';
     $start_level++;
   }
   $php_stmt .= '[$xml_elem[\'tag\']] = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';
   eval($php_stmt);
  }
}

echo "<pre>";
print_r ($params);
echo "</pre>";

At the output, only the last <item> shows (i.e.Second Item). The first one is lost.

What should I change so it keeps ALL <item> tags.

9 years ago


XML -> Array
<?
    $data = '<root><a><b x="s" a="2">asdf</b><c></c></a></root>';
    
    $p = xml_parser_create();
    xml_parse_into_struct($p, $data, $vals);
    xml_parser_free($p);
    
    $key = $output = array();
   foreach ($vals as $id=>$item) {
      if ($item["type"]=="open" || $item["level"]>count($key)) {// && count($key)<=$item["level"])
          array_push($key, $id);
          $temp = array("tag"=>$item["tag"], "value"=>"", "attributes"=>array());
          eval("\$output[".implode("][", $key)."] = \$temp;");
      }
      if ($item["type"]=="close" || $item["level"]<count($key))// && $item["level"]>=count($key))
          array_pop($key);
      if (isset($item["attributes"]))
          eval("\$output[".implode("][", $key)."]['attributes'] = array_merge(\$output[".implode("][", $key)."]['attributes'], \$item['attributes']);");
      if (isset($item["value"]))
          eval("\$output[".implode("][", $key)."]['value'] .= \$item['value'];");
   }
?>

Elad Elrom

9 years ago


This is a quick fix for parsing XML from remote URL, some of the example above will work when trying to parse on your local server without "http://" but not when trying to parse from remote server using "http://www.URL"...

<?
$file="http://www.URL.com/file.XML";

$xml_parser = xml_parser_create();

$handle = fopen($file, "rb");
$contents = '';
while (!feof($handle)) {
  $data .= fread($handle, 8192);
}
fclose($handle);

xml_parse_into_struct($xml_parser, $data, $vals, $index);
xml_parser_free($xml_parser);

$params = array();
$level = array();
foreach ($vals as $xml_elem) {
  if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'open') {
   if (array_key_exists('attributes',$xml_elem)) {
     list($level[$xml_elem['level']],$extra) = array_values($xml_elem['attributes']);
   } else {
     $level[$xml_elem['level']] = $xml_elem['tag'];
   }
  }
  if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'complete') {
   $start_level = 1;
   $php_stmt = '$params';
   while($start_level < $xml_elem['level']) {
     $php_stmt .= '[$level['.$start_level.']]';
     $start_level++;
   }
   $php_stmt .= '[$xml_elem[\'tag\']] = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';
   eval($php_stmt);
  }
}

echo "<pre>";
print_r ($params);
echo "</pre>";
?>

mad dot cat at mcmadcat dot com

9 years ago


this my love function:
<?php
function mc_parse_xml($filename)
{
    $xml = file_get_contents($filename);
    $p = xml_parser_create();
    xml_parse_into_struct($p, $xml, $values, $index);
    xml_parser_free($p);
    for ($i=0;$i<count($values);$i++) {
        if (isset($values[$i]['attributes'])) {
            $parent = $values[$i]['tag'];
            $keys = array_keys($values[$i]['attributes']);
            for ($z=0;$z<count($keys);$z++)
            {
                $content[$parent][$i][$keys[$z]] = $values[$i]['attributes'][$keys[$z]];
                if (isset($content[$parent][$i]['VALUE'])) $content[$parent][$i]['VALUE'] = $values[$i]['value'];
            }
        }
    }
    foreach ($content as $key => $values) {
        $content[$key] = array_values($content[$key]); 
    }
    if (is_array($content)) return $content;
    else return false;
}
?>

webmaster at unitedscripters dot com

9 years ago


Ps keep in mind that some Rss feeds include spurious tags as... html entities (see Google news Rss feeds: they include tables as &lt;table blah blah!).

If so, in my rssSnapper below add this:

<?php
$input=preg_replace("/(<!\\[CDATA\\[)|(\\]\\]>)/", '', $input);
$input=html_entity_decode($input); //<-- added line
?>

You may play around with the code and make it perfect, testing it on various feeds. Not _all_ XML is worth of an XML parser and the sleepless nights it entails.

webmaster at unitedscripters dot com

9 years ago


It may be not entirely immaterial to stress that when you are dealing with incoming XML files such as RSS feeds, and you are about to include several of them in some page of yours, resorting to the PHP XML oriented functions is neither _necessarily_ the best idea, nor it is _strictly_ indispensable.

I have in mind, here, also a note that time ago was on this documentation by some info at gramba dot tv:

QUOTE
I was working with the xml2array functions below and had big performance problems. I fired them on a 20MB XML file and had to quit since all approaches of parsing where just too slow (more than 20 Minute parsing etc..). The solution was parsing it manually with preg_match, which increased performance by more than 20 times (processing time about 1 minute).
UNQUOTE

Calling in a specific XML structure function, and arranging a whole class, when all you want from an incoming files may be the contents of a few tags, is not the only option you are left with, when you are at PHP.

Here is a simple function that parses a XML RSS feed using no XML oriented function: keeping this in mind may spare you the need to create extremely complex classes as the ones we see here when _all_ you may want is a few titles and descriptions from an RSS (if that's your goal, you don't need XML parsers):

<?php
function rssSnapper($input='', $limit=0, $feedChannel='Yahoo!News'){
$input=file_get_contents($input);
    if(!$input){return '';};
$input=preg_replace("/[\\n\\r\\t]+/", '', $input);
$input=preg_replace("/(<!\\[CDATA\\[)|(\\]\\]>)/", '', $input);
preg_match_all("/<item>(.*?)<\\/item>/", $input, $items, PREG_SET_ORDER);
$limit=(int)$limit;
$limit=($limit && is_numeric($limit) && abs($limit)<sizeof($items))? sizeof($items)-abs($limit): 0;
while(sizeof($items)>$limit){
    $item=array_shift($items);
    $item=$item[1];
    preg_match_all("/<link>(.*?)<\\/link>/", $item, $link, PREG_SET_ORDER);
    preg_match_all("/<title>(.*?)<\\/title>/", $item, $title, PREG_SET_ORDER);
    preg_match_all("/<author>(.*?)<\\/author>/", $item, $author, PREG_SET_ORDER);
    preg_match_all("/<pubDate>(.*?)<\\/pubDate>/", $item, $pubDate, PREG_SET_ORDER);
    preg_match_all("/<description>(.*?)<\\/description>/", $item, $description, PREG_SET_ORDER);
        if(sizeof($link)){ $link = strip_tags($link[0][1]); };
        if(sizeof($title)){ $title = strtoupper( strip_tags($title[0][1]) ); };
        if(sizeof($author)){ $author = strip_tags($author[0][1]); };
        if(sizeof($pubDate)){ $pubDate = strip_tags($pubDate[0][1]); };
        if(sizeof($description)){ $description = strip_tags($description[0][1]); };
    print <<<USAVIT
    
    <!-- ITEM STARTS -->
    <div class="news_bg_trick">
    <a href="$link" class="item" target="_blank">
    <span class="title">$title<span class="channel">$feedChannel</span></span>
    <span class="title_footer">
    by <span class="author">$author</span> -
    <span class="date">$pubDate</span>
    </span>
    <span class="description">$description</span>
    </a>
    </div>
    <!-- ITEM ENDS -->
    
USAVIT;
}//out of loop
/*unitedscripters.com*/}
?>

The printing phase assigns Css class names: the output is thus fully customizable by a mere style sheet.

The use of strip_tags is a reminder from Chris Shiflett: distrust incoming data, always, anyway.
I hope no typos slipped in in transcription. Arguably not perfect, but I hope a good alternative idea to spending three days on a full fledged XML parser just to grab... three tags from a RSS feed!
bye, ALberto

donna at coloma dot com

10 years ago


I needed a very simple parser for a set of name-value pairs to be stored in a single database field. I started with the mold example, paired it down, picked up the "id" attributes. Perhaps it will be useful for someone else. 

<?php
/* simple conversion for name-value fields */

$xmlInput = "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>
<mcw_settings>
  <field id=\"imageAlign\">left</field>
  <field id=\"caption\">What a nice picture.</field>
</mcw_settings>";

$desiredResult = array (
    'imageAlign' => "left",
    'caption' => "What a nice picture."
);

function parseFields ($data)
{
    // read the XML database of fields
    $parser = xml_parser_create();
    xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
    xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
    xml_parse_into_struct($parser, $data, $values, $tags);
    xml_parser_free($parser);
    $fields = null;

    // loop through the structures
    $fieldIndices = $tags['field'];
    for ( $i=0; $i < count($fieldIndices); $i++ ) {
        $fieldInfo = $values[$fieldIndices[$i]];
        $fields[$fieldInfo['attributes']['id']] = $fieldInfo['value'];
    }
    return $fields;
}

$test = parseFields($xmlInput);
echo "** Result:\n";
print_r($test);
?>

matt at australiangamer dot com

10 years ago


I liked VampBoy's code as it gave me structure pretty much as I wanted it. Just two notes, though:

There is a bug in this code. subdivide() checks for pre-existing values, but not in the case of a "complete" element.

In the following (appallingly bad) XML

<Names>
<Name>Matt</Name>
<Name>Stacy</Name>
<Names> 

Only Stacy is added to Names in the array, wiping Matt in the process.

To fix this replace the following code 
<?php
elseif ($dat[level] === $level && $dat[type] === "complete"){
   $newarray[$dat[tag]]=$dat[value];
}
?>
with 
<?php
elseif ($dat[level] === $level && $dat[type] === "complete"){
     if (isset($newarray[$dat['tag']]) && is_array($newarray[$dat['tag']])){
          $newarray[$dat['tag']][] = $dat['value'];
     } elseif (isset($newarray[$dat['tag']]) && !is_array($newarray[$dat['tag']])){
          $newarray[$dat['tag']] = array($newarray[$dat['tag']], $dat['value']);
     } else {
          $newarray[$dat['tag']]=$dat['value'];
     }
}?>

Oh, also, note that the $dat[level], etc, WILL generate warnings, and should be more correctly written as $dat['level'].

The other thing I thought I should point out is that the array keys when created using xml_parse_into_struct will be an UPPERCASE version of your existing element names. If case is important, especially if you, like me, need mixedCase, do the following:

<?php
$xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
xml_parser_set_option($xml_parser,XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING,0);
?>

Anonymous

10 years ago


$simple = '<?xml version="1.0"?>
<moldb>
    <molecule>
        <name>Alanine</name>
        <symbol>ala</symbol>
        <code>A</code>
        <type>hydrophobic</type>
    </molecule>
    <molecule>
        <name>Lysine</name>
        <symbol>lys</symbol>
        <code>K</code>
        <type>charged</type>
    </molecule>
</moldb>';

$p = xml_parser_create();
xml_parse_into_struct($p, $simple, $vals, $index);
xml_parser_free($p);
echo "<pre>";
echo "Index array\n";
print_r($index);
echo "\nVals array\n";
print_r($vals);

foreach ($vals as $k => $v) {
    $i = 0;
    if (trim($v['value']) != '') {
        if ($arr[$i][$v['tag']] != '') {
            $i ++;
        }
        $arr[$i][$v['tag']] = $v['value'];
    }
}

voncken at mailandnews dot com

14 years ago


I needed something a bit different:
this is the result of my xml2array function (from the moldb example)

Array
(
    [molecule] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [name] => Alanine
                    [symbol] => ala
                    [code] => A
                    [type] => hydrophobic
                )

            [1] => Array
                (
                    [name] => Lysine
                    [symbol] => lys
                    [code] => K
                    [type] => charged
                )

        )

)

function xml2array($data)
  {
    //mvo voncken@mailandnews.com
    //original ripped from  on the php-manual:gdemartini@bol.com.br    
    //to be used for data retrieval(result-structure is Data oriented)    
    $p = xml_parser_create();
    xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
    xml_parse_into_struct($p, $data, &$vals, &$index);
    xml_parser_free($p);

    $tree = array();
    $i = 0;
    //array_push($tree, array('tag' => $vals[$i]['tag'], 'attributes'=> $vals[$i]['attributes'],                            'children' => ));
    $tree = GetChildren($vals, $i);
    return $tree;
  }

 function GetChildren($vals, &$i) 
  {                  
    $children = array();
    if ($vals[$i]['value']) array_push($children, $vals[$i]['value']);
        
    $prevtag = "";
    while (++$i < count($vals)) // so pra nao botar while true ;-)
    {      
      switch ($vals[$i]['type'])
      {          
         case 'cdata':
           array_push($children, $vals[$i]['value']);
           break;
         case 'complete':                      
           $children[ strtolower($vals[$i]['tag']) ] = $vals[$i]['value'];            
           break;

         case 'open':                                 
           
           //restartindex on unique tag-name
           $j++;
           if ($prevtag <> $vals[$i]['tag']) {
                   $j = 0;    
                   $prevtag = $vals[$i]['tag'];
            }                              
           $children[ strtolower($vals[$i]['tag']) ][$j] = GetChildren($vals,$i);
           break;

         case 'close':           
           return $children;
      }
    }    
  }

rob at digital hyphen crocus dot com

11 years ago


I wrote this function in a bad mood, to get some data you can loop through. sprint_r or var_dump its output to see what it does. It's not pretty, but at least you can loop through the data without a LOT of hassle.

This can also be done with handlers, but I couldn't be bothered with global variables.

<?php

$data = xml_parse_into_struct($somexml);

function xml_getmeaningfuldata($data) {
foreach($data as $element) {
        if ($element['type'] == "open") {
                if (!$elementnos[$parents.$element['tag']]) {
                        $elementnos[$parents.$element['tag']] = 1;
                }
                $elements[$parents.$element['tag'].":". $elementnos[$parents.$element['tag']]]['attributes'] = $element['attributes'];
                $elements[$parents.$element['tag'].":". $elementnos[$parents.$element['tag']]]['value'] = trim($element['value']);
                $parents .= $element['tag'].":".$elementnos[$parents.$element['tag']]."^";
        }
        if ($element['type'] == "cdata") {
                if (trim($element['value'])) {
                        $elements[$parents.$element['tag'].":". $elementnos[$parents.$element['tag']]]['values'] = $element['value'];
                }
        }
        if ($element['type'] == "complete") {
                if (!$elementnos[$parents.$element['tag']]) {
                        $elementnos[$parents.$element['tag']] = 1;
                }
                $elements[$parents.$element['tag'].":". $elementnos[$parents.$element['tag']]]['attributes'] = $element['attributes'];
                $elements[$parents.$element['tag'].":". $elementnos[$parents.$element['tag']]]['value'] = trim($element['value']);
                $elementnos[$parents.$element['tag']]++;
        }
        if ($element['type'] == "close") {
                $parents = substr($parents, 0, strrpos(substr($parents, 0, -1), "^")+1);
                $elementnos[$parents.$element['tag']]++;
//              if (sizeof($parents) == 1) unset($parents);
        }
}

return $elements;

}

Adam Tylmad

7 years ago


Thanx to jukea i've upgraded the characterData-function to allow the value 0. Here is the new complete code:

<?php

class XMLParser {
    var $path;
    var $result;

    function cleanString($string) {
        return trim(str_replace("'", "&#39;", $string));
    }
   
    function XMLParser($encoding, $data) {
        $this->path = "\$this->result";
        $this->index = 0;
       
        $xml_parser = xml_parser_create($encoding);
        xml_set_object($xml_parser, &$this);
        xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser, 'startElement', 'endElement');
        xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser, 'characterData');

        xml_parse($xml_parser, $data, true);
        xml_parser_free($xml_parser);
    }
   
    function startElement($parser, $tag, $attributeList) {
        $this->path .= "->".$tag;
        eval("\$data = ".$this->path.";");
        if (is_array($data)) {
            $index = sizeof($data);
            $this->path .= "[".$index."]";
        } else if (is_object($data)) {
            eval($this->path." = array(".$this->path.");");
            $this->path .= "[1]";
        }

        foreach($attributeList as $name => $value)
            eval($this->path."->".$name. " = '".XMLParser::cleanString($value)."';");
    }
   
    function endElement($parser, $tag) {
        $this->path = substr($this->path, 0, strrpos($this->path, "->"));
    }
   
    function characterData($parser, $data) {
        if (strlen($data = XMLParser::cleanString($data)))
            eval($this->path." = '$data';");
    }
}

?>

jemptymethod at gmail dot com

7 years ago


@wickedfather, re: beaudurrant....I just cannot concur that the latter's class is "great"....First of all, it doesn't handle attributes.  Second of all, as my code below demonstrates, there is no need waste processing by determining duplicates within their own loop.  Thirdly, when there are duplicates, it collapses the layer in the array above the duplicates.

Here is some much more consise code, though not (yet) object oriented, and also not yet handling attributes; it maintains a stack for each level:

<?php
function xml_parse_into_assoc($file) {
  $data = implode("", file($file));
  $p = xml_parser_create();
  
  xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
  xml_parser_set_option($p, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
  
  xml_parse_into_struct($p, $data, $vals, $index);
  xml_parser_free($p);

  $levels = array(null);
  
  foreach ($vals as $val) {
    if ($val['type'] == 'open' || $val['type'] == 'complete') {
      if (!array_key_exists($val['level'], $levels)) {
        $levels[$val['level']] = array();
      }
    }
    
    $prevLevel =& $levels[$val['level'] - 1];
    $parent = $prevLevel[sizeof($prevLevel)-1]; 
    
    if ($val['type'] == 'open') {
      $val['children'] = array();
      array_push(&$levels[$val['level']], $val);
      continue;
    }
    
    else if ($val['type'] == 'complete') {
      $parent['children'][$val['tag']] = $val['value'];
    }
    
    else if ($val['type'] == 'close') {
      $pop = array_pop($levels[$val['level']]);
      $tag = $pop['tag'];
      
      if ($parent) {
        if (!array_key_exists($tag, $parent['children'])) {
          $parent['children'][$tag] = $pop['children'];
        }
        else if (is_array($parent['children'][$tag])) {
          $parent['children'][$tag][] = $pop['children']; 
        }
      }
      else {
        return(array($pop['tag'] => $pop['children']));
      }
    }
    
    $prevLevel[sizeof($prevLevel)-1] = $parent;
  }
}
?>

Stuart

9 years ago


This is a great little function for a lot of XML work, but note that this function does not handle XML entities properly.

The basic XML entities &lt; &gt; &amp; &quot; are fine, just anything else will not work:

If the entity is defined in the XML header, the parser will drop it completely from the struct it creates.

If the entity is not defined in the XML then the parser will crash out with an undefined entity error.

You should be able to work around this limitation by using a preg_replace on your XML string before passing it to the parser.

(Further details in Bug #35271; this is just a warning to those thinking of using this function for parsing real XML documents not just trivial XML examples)

Adam Tylmad

7 years ago


Thanx to jukea i've upgraded the characterData-function to allow the value 0. Here is the new complete code:

<?php

class XMLParser {
    var $path;
    var $result;

    function cleanString($string) {
        return trim(str_replace("'", "&#39;", $string));
    }
   
    function XMLParser($encoding, $data) {
        $this->path = "\$this->result";
        $this->index = 0;
       
        $xml_parser = xml_parser_create($encoding);
        xml_set_object($xml_parser, &$this);
        xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser, 'startElement', 'endElement');
        xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser, 'characterData');

        xml_parse($xml_parser, $data, true);
        xml_parser_free($xml_parser);
    }
   
    function startElement($parser, $tag, $attributeList) {
        $this->path .= "->".$tag;
        eval("\$data = ".$this->path.";");
        if (is_array($data)) {
            $index = sizeof($data);
            $this->path .= "[".$index."]";
        } else if (is_object($data)) {
            eval($this->path." = array(".$this->path.");");
            $this->path .= "[1]";
        }

        foreach($attributeList as $name => $value)
            eval($this->path."->".$name. " = '".XMLParser::cleanString($value)."';");
    }
   
    function endElement($parser, $tag) {
        $this->path = substr($this->path, 0, strrpos($this->path, "->"));
    }
   
    function characterData($parser, $data) {
        if (strlen($data = XMLParser::cleanString($data)))
            eval($this->path." = '$data';");
    }
}

?>