SimpleXMLElement::attributes

(PHP 5 >= 5.0.1, PHP 7)

SimpleXMLElement::attributes — Identifies an element's attributes

Description

public SimpleXMLElement SimpleXMLElement::attributes ([ string $ns = NULL [, bool $is_prefix = false ]] )

This function provides the attributes and values defined within an xml tag.

Note: SimpleXML has made a rule of adding iterative properties to most methods. They cannot be viewed using var_dump() or anything else which can examine objects.

Parameters

ns: An optional namespace for the retrieved attributes
is_prefix: Default to FALSE

Return Values

Returns a SimpleXMLElement object that can be iterated over to loop through the attributes on the tag.

Returns NULL if called on a SimpleXMLElement object that already represents an attribute and not a tag.

Examples

Example #1 Interpret an XML string


<?php
$string = <<<XML
<a>
 <foo name="one" game="lonely">1</foo>
</a>
XML;

$xml = simplexml_load_string($string);
foreach($xml->foo[0]->attributes() as $a => $b) {
    echo $a,'="',$b,"\"\n";
}
?>

The above example will output:

name="one"
game="lonely"

User Contributed Notes

Xeoncross

6 years ago


It is really simple to access attributes using array form. However, you must convert them to strings or ints if you plan on passing the values to functions.

<?php
SimpleXMLElement Object
(
    [@attributes] => Array
        (
            [id] => 55555
        )

    [text] => "hello world"
)
?>

Then using a function

<?php
function xml_attribute($object, $attribute)
{
    if(isset($object[$attribute]))
        return (string) $object[$attribute];
}
?>

I can get the "id" like this

<?php
print xml_attribute($xml, 'id'); //prints "55555"
?>

chris at chlab dot ch

4 years ago


Note that you must provide the namespace if you want to access an attribute of a non-default namespace:

Consider the following example:

<?php
$xml = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Workbook xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet"
 xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet">
 <Table Foo="Bar" ss:ExpandedColumnCount="7">
 </Table>
</Workbook>
XML;

$sxml = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);

/**
 * Access attribute of default namespace
 */
var_dump((string) $sxml->Table[0]['Foo']);
// outputs: 'Bar'

/**
 * Access attribute of non-default namespace
 */
var_dump((int) $sxml->Table[0]['ExpandedColumnCount']);
// outputs: 0

var_dump((int) $sxml->Table[0]->attributes('ss', TRUE)->ExpandedColumnCount);
// outputs: '7'
?>

webfelipemaia at gmail dot com

2 years ago


Use attributes to display when it meets certain condition defined attribute / value in xml tags.

Use atributos para exibir quando atende determinada condição definida atributo / valor em tags XML.

Consider the following example:
Considere o seguinte exemplo:

(file.xml)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<list>
    <item type="Language">
        <name>PHP</name>
        <link>www.php.net</link>
    </item>
    <item type="Database">
        <name>Java</name>
        <link>www.oracle.com/br/technologies/java/‎</link>
    </item>
</list>

Checks if the attribute value equals "Language", if equal prints everything that is related to "Language".

Verifica se o valor do atributo é igual a "Language", se for, imprime tudo o que for relativo ao mesmo.

<?php

$xml = simplexml_load_file("file.xml");

foreach($xml->children() as $child) {
    
        $role = $child->attributes();

        foreach($child as $key => $value) {
            
            if($role == "Language")
            echo("[".$key ."] ".$value . "<br />");
            
        }
}
?>

output:
saída:

[name] PHP
[link] www.php.net

totalwipeout at gmail dot com

3 years ago


Tip to get a real array of all attributes of a node (not SimpleXML's object acting like an array)

<?php
//- $node is a SimpleXMLElement object

$atts_object = $node->attributes(); //- get all attributes, this is not a real array
$atts_array = (array) $atts_object; //- typecast to an array

//- grab the value of '@attributes' key, which contains the array your after
$atts_array = $atts_array['@attributes'];

var_dump($atts_object); //- outputs object(SimpleXMLElement)[19]
                        //-             public '@attributes' => ...

var_dump($atts_array); //- outputs array (size=11) ...

?>
Hope this helps!

sarlak

5 years ago


<?php
$att = 'attribueName';

// You can access an element's attribute just like this :
$attribute = $element->attributes()->$att;

// This will save the value of the attribute, and not the objet
$attribute = (string)$element->attributes()->$att;

// You also can edit it this way :
$element->attributes()->$att = 'New value of the attribute';
?>

zevnikrok

1 year ago


If you wish to get attributes as an associative array of key value pairs, you don't need to iterate through them, you can get it with this one liner:

  reset($element->attributes())

skerr at mojavi dot org

11 years ago


You can also access the node as an array to get attributes:



<?php



$xml = simplexml_load_file('file.xml');



echo 'Attribute: ' . $xml['attribute'];



?>

Andrei

4 years ago


Reading the attributes of the root element with name space prefixes as in an Atom feed

<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" gd:etag="W/&quot;Ck4EQXYzeCp7ImA9WhZWFE4.&quot;">

<?php
$xml =  @simplexml_load_file($feed); 
$att_gd = $xml->attributes("gd",1);
$Etag = $att_gd["etag"];
?>

alan at performantsystems dot com

5 years ago


So lets say you have database type data in an XML string called $xmlstring with the key or item ID as an XML Attribute and all content data as regular XML Elements, as above. SimpleXML processes the Attributes as an array, so we can play along and push the Attributes into an array. Then we can get the value of any specific Attribute we want by addressing it by name, such as "ID".

Considering this data:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<data>
   <item ID="30001">
      <Company>Navarro Corp.</Company>
   </item>
   <item ID="30002">
      <Company>Performant Systems</Company>
   </item>
   <item ID="30003">
      <Company>Digital Showcase</Company>
   </item>
</data>

Example of listing both the ID Attribute and Company Element values:
 
<?php
$xmlObject = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstring);
foreach ($xmlObject->children() as $node) {
        $arr = $node->attributes();   // returns an array
        print ("ID=".$arr["ID"]);     // get the value of this attribute
        print ("  Company=".$node->Company);
        print ("<p><hr>");
}
?>

gillllberg at gmail dot com

6 years ago


To get an attribute in the node, use node->attributes()->attributeName

andy dot locologic+101 at gmail dot com

8 months ago


Easiest and safest way to get attributes as an array is to use the iterator_to_array function (see http://php.net/manual/en/function.iterator-to-array.php):

<?php
      $x = new SimpleXMLElement('<div class="myclass" id="myid"/>');
      $attributes = iterator_to_array($x->attributes());
?>

adrian at foeder dot de

2 years ago


in order to get a possibly present xml:space attribute, use the following construct:

<?php
$simpleXmlElement->element->attributes('http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace')->space;
?>

This will, for example, return 'preserve' if set.

Just passing by 'xml' as namespace argument of the attribute() method didn't work out for me. Passing by the complete namespace URI works also if it is not explicitly defined in the underlying XML document.

Also, $simpleXmlElement->getNamespaces() does not return anything of use.

leap

5 years ago


If you want to save the value of an attribute into an array, typecast it to a string.



<?php

// stores an xml-element-object

$dataStore['value'] = $attributes->myValue



// stores the value of the attribute

$dataStore['value'] = (string)$attributes->myValue

?>

inge at elektronaut dot no

11 years ago


here's a simple function to get an attribute by name, based on the example



<?php

function findAttribute($object, $attribute) {

  foreach($object->attributes() as $a => $b) {

    if ($a == $attribute) {

      $return = $b;

    }

  } 

  if($return) {

    return $return;

  }

}

?>

SimpleXMLElement::attributes

Description

Parameters

Return Values

Examples

See Also

User Contributed Notes