PHP: simplexml_load_string() force array

Question

Does anyone know if I can force a SimpleXMLElement variable to always be an array?

<result>
    <item>
        <id>1</id>
        <name>name 1</name>
    </item>
    <item>
        <id>2</id>
        <name>name 2</name>
    </item>
</result>

When parsing the above XML through simplexml_load_string() I get the following object

SimpleXMLElement Object
(
    [item] => Array
    (
        [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
            (
                [id] => 1
                [name] => name 1
            )
        [1] => SimpleXMLElement Object
             (
                [id] => 2
                [name] => name 2
            )
    )
)

Which is great because I can loop through "item" and get the individual objects. But when item is a single entry, like below, I get a different object structure which ruins my loop becuase I start looping through "id" and "name" instead of objects.

<result>
    <item>
        <id>1</id>
        <name>name 1</name>
    </item>
</result>

SimpleXMLElement Object
(
    [item] => SimpleXMLElement Object
    (
           [id] => 1
           [name] => name 1    
    )

)

Is there anyway to force "item" to be an array with simplexml_load_string() or by re-structuring the XML?

Hanky Panky · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-04 14:23:18Z

4

You don't need to have that as an array, a simple check will do. Like

if(is_array($xml->result->item))
{
    //loop here
}
else
{
    //only one object
}

Also, a single foreach will get the job done whether there is one element or there are multiple. For example

<?php
$string="
<result>
    <item>
        <id>1</id>
        <name>name 1</name>
    </item>

</result>";

$xml = simplexml_load_string($string);

//print_r($xml);


foreach($xml->item as $item)
{
echo $item->id."\n";
}
?>

That works perfectly fine for multiple items as well. See fiddle

Fiddle

edited Oct 4, 2013 at 14:23

answered Oct 4, 2013 at 14:15

Hanky Panky

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2 Comments

Theo Kouzelis Over a year ago

I have that solution in some of the code already but it means I either set the single "item" into an array myself or I duplicate code in the if statment

Theo Kouzelis Over a year ago

Wow didn't know foreach would react like that with a single object. I thought foreach would at least give out a warning for trying to loop through something that wasn't an array. Thanks for your answer

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