Trouble reading XML tag attributes with PHP

Question

Given the following

<data type="new">
     <time>1</time>
     <time>2</time>
</data>

 <data type="old">
      <time>3</time>
      <time>4</time>
 </data

The goal being to type something along the following

   <?php 
    $test = simplexml_load_file('http://....')
    echo $test->data['type="old"']->time[0] //I want this to return 3
   ?>

and get the value of 3! I hate tried using attributes but I'm still on the search for the solution.

Thanks, JTC

The actually doc I'm trying to parse from

<data type="current observations">
    <time-layout time-coordinate="local">
        <start-valid-time period-name="current">2013-05-27T13:53:00-04:00</start-valid-time>
    </time-layout>
</data>

I attempted the following but got an Invalid expression warning.

  $weather = simplexml_load_file('http://...');
  $time=$weather->xpath('//data[@type="current observations"]/"time-layout"/"start-valid-   time"');
  echo $time[0];

possible duplicate of Help parse XML to PHP by attribute value — salathe
– salathe, Commented May 27, 2013 at 18:45
I would agree they are similar but I'm interested in the array value. — tyler
– tyler, Commented May 27, 2013 at 19:10
They looked similar to my lack of presenting the question better. I have sence updated it! — tyler
– tyler, Commented May 27, 2013 at 20:03

Rolando Isidoro · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-27 19:24:03Z

1

Here's a code snippet using SimpleXMLElement and XPath. I've added a root datas node so the XML could be parsed, I'm guessing yours is well formed.

<?php
$xml = <<<XML
<datas>
    <data type="new">
        <time>1</time>
        <time>2</time>
    </data>
    <data type="old">
        <time>3</time>
        <time>4</time>
    </data>
</datas>
XML;

$sxe  = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);
$time = $sxe->xpath('//data[@type="old"]/time');
echo $time[0];

Output

answered May 27, 2013 at 19:24

Rolando Isidoro

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3 Comments

tyler Over a year ago

the XML file is located external to the file that's why i was using simplexml_load_file() im not sure of how to use the impleXMLElement()

Rolando Isidoro Over a year ago

Read the official documentation of SimpleXMLElement _construct, you'll notice that it accepts external URLs and local paths. Just do something like $sxe = new SimpleXMLElement('http://....', 0, true);.

tyler Over a year ago

I updated the bottom of my question to better reflect my problem! I tried your suggestion with no luck but this may due to my highly lacking knowledge of parsing.

davmos · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-27 20:46:07Z

0

OK, taking your actual XML document which is well-formed, you could do this...

$data = $weather->xpath('/data[@type="current observations"]');
$time_layout = $data[0]->xpath('time-layout[@time-coordinate="local"]');
$start_valid_time = $time_layout[0]->xpath('start-valid-time[@period-name="current"]');
echo (string)$start_valid_time[0];

See it in action here.

edited May 27, 2013 at 20:46

answered May 27, 2013 at 19:24

davmos

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4 Comments

tyler Over a year ago

being that the file is not actually in the document ie I'm pulling the data in. Can i use the simplexml_load_string() just like the simplexml_load_file()

davmos Over a year ago

You don't need to change that line. We are using different functions for demo purposes only. The line you want is the next one.

tyler Over a year ago

when trying to use your code the [0]->time[0] gave me an error! I also updated the above question to better reflect the problem I'm having.

davmos Over a year ago

Sorry @tman, my original syntax was only working in latest versions of PHP. I've updated with better syntax supported in 5.0.0 upwards. You can see here.

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