How to convert empty XML node into empty string instead of SimpleXMLElement

Question

I have an XML string that sometimes has empty nodes. When parsing this with simplexml_load_string the parser interprets any empty nodes (example <node></node>) to be an empty SimpleXMLElement. I actually would prefer these come through as an empty string, or are just omitted entirely.

I've tried using LIBXML_NOBLANKS as shown below, but it seems to have no effect. Here's some code that demonstrates the situation. the node "p2" is empty:

$xml = "<xml><p1>1</p1><p2></p2><p3>3</p3></xml>";

$obj = simplexml_load_string($xml, 'SimpleXMLElement', LIBXML_NOBLANKS);

header("Content-type: text/plain");

echo "STRING\n-----\n" . $xml;
echo "\n\nOBJ\n---\n" . print_r($obj,1);
echo "\n\nJSON\n----\n" . json_encode($obj);

I just made some tests and this does look like a bug in the XML module. — apfelbox
– apfelbox, Commented Aug 1, 2012 at 23:34
thanks for the replies. i have a hack solution involving converting to an array which is similar to the xpath solution, but I was hoping LIBXML_NOBLANKS or some other flag would handle it without having to enumerate. — Jason
– Jason, Commented Aug 2, 2012 at 17:53

Arkemlar · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-12 18:28:05Z

0

Here is working example for empty nodes:

    $nodes = $rootNode->xpath("//*[text()='']");
    foreach ($nodes as $node) {
        unset($node->{0});
    }

unset($node->{0}) - is a trick which destroyes this node and removes it from parent node.

answered Jan 12, 2017 at 18:28

Arkemlar

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