Looping through an Object array

Question

I want to loop through an object array and get id, category and name from it. Here is my php code. which is getting xml content from a server with a cURL request and then converting it to object array. I don't know how to loop through it and get all the values i want.

<?php 
    $url = "http://wingz.info/daas3b/search?q=word&top=&user=xxxx&pwd=xxxx";
    $ch = curl_init();
            curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
            curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
            ob_start();
            curl_exec ($ch);
            curl_close ($ch);
            $response = ob_get_clean();
            ob_end_clean();
    $response_array = @simplexml_load_string($response);

And the Object array is given below.

    SimpleXMLElement Object
(
    [@attributes] => Array
        (
            [id] => search
        )

    [content] => Array
        (
            [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 435
                        )

                    [category] => word
                    [name] => give
                )

            [1] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 436
                        )

                    [category] => word
                    [name] => verb
                )

            [2] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 437
                        )

                    [category] => word
                    [name] => noun
                )

            [3] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 438
                        )

                    [category] => word
                    [name] => person
                )

            [4] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 439
                        )

                    [category] => word
                    [name] => adjective
                )

            [5] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 440
                        )

                    [category] => word
                    [name] => adverb
                )))

Hiphop03199 · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-17 15:44:44Z

1

This should list out the info you were asking for, and hopefully show you a bit about traversing the SimpleXML objects:

// Get the list of objects from your XML content
$objects_array = $response_array->content;

// Loop through all of the objects
foreach($objects_array as $xml_object) {
    echo '<br />' . xml_object->name; // The name
    echo '<br />' . xml_object->category; // The category

    $attributes = xml_object->attributes();
    echo '<br />' . $attributes['id']; // The id
}

Let me know if there was a problem and I'll edit this answer.

Edit: If it's not certain that each object will have an id/name/category: then the following, more robust code:

$objects_array = $response_array->content;

// Loop through all of the objects
foreach($objects_array as $xml_object) {
    echo '<br />' . (isset(xml_object->name) ? xml_object->name : ''); // The name
    echo '<br />' . (isset(xml_object->category) ? xml_object->category : ''); // The category

    $attributes = xml_object->attributes();
    echo '<br />' . (isset($attributes['id']) ? $attributes['id'] : ''); // The id
}

For more info on working with SimpleXML objects, check out https://secure.php.net/manual/en/simplexml.examples-basic.php.

edited Feb 17, 2016 at 15:44

answered Feb 17, 2016 at 15:13

Hiphop03199

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4 Comments

Sharan Sondhi Over a year ago

( ! ) Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '$xml_object' (T_VARIABLE) on line 15

Hiphop03199 Over a year ago

Ah sorry, edited now to change "$objects_array-> as" to "$objects_array as"

Hiphop03199 Over a year ago

Robust version done in response to "J. A. Streich's" robust code

Sharan Sondhi Over a year ago

Thanks man you help me a lot. Thank you very much.@Hiphop03199

J. A. Streich · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-17 15:33:01Z

1

// loop through
foreach($response_array->content as $thing)
{
  // get the id.
  $attrs = $thing->attributes();
  $id = $attrs[id];

  // check for and get the category
  if(isset($thing->category))
  {
    $category = $thing->category;
  }
  else
  {
    $category = '';
  }

  // check for and get the name.
  if(isset($thing->name))
  {
    $name = $thing->name;
  }
  else
  {
    $name = '';
  }
}

edited Feb 17, 2016 at 15:33

answered Feb 17, 2016 at 15:10

J. A. Streich

1,71210 silver badges14 bronze badges

3 Comments

Hiphop03199 Over a year ago

Aren't the 'id' and 'name' properties stored at different levels? Also: good work checking if they are set/providing default values, but might be cleaner to do with ternary: "$name = isset($thing->name) ? $thing->name : ''; ". A matter of personal preference though.

J. A. Streich Over a year ago

Oh, sorry, yeah the id is in attributes... hold on I'll edit... The ternary :? operator is one I use in real code, but often try to avoid when posting answers as it obfuscates the code.

Sharan Sondhi Over a year ago

Thanks for your time and efforts. It helps [email protected]

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