SimpleXML Attributes to Array

Question

Is there any more elegant way to escape SimpleXML attributes to an array?

$result = $xml->xpath( $xpath );
$element = $result[ 0 ];
$attributes = (array) $element->attributes();
$attributes = $attributes[ '@attributes' ];

I don't really want to have to loop through it just to extract the key/value pair. All I need is to get it into an array and then pass it on. I would have thought attributes() would have done it by default, or at least given the option. But I couldn't even find the above solution anywhere, I had to figure that out on my own. Am I over complicating this or something?

Edit:

I'm still using the above script until I know for sure whether accessing the @attributes array is safe or not.

silverskater · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-03 05:24:16Z

63

a more elegant way; it gives you the same results without using $attributes[ '@attributes' ] :

$attributes = current($element->attributes());

answered Dec 3, 2012 at 5:24

silverskater

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1 Comment

Roman Hocke Over a year ago

Nice, thank You! I usually add current(...) ?: [] because in case the XML element has no attributes, current(...) returns false where empty array would be (imho) more appropriate.

gen_Eric · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-11 19:52:24Z

12

Don't directly read the '@attributes' property, that's for internal use. Anyway, attributes() can already be used as an array without needing to "convert" to a real array.

For example:

<?php
$xml = '<xml><test><a a="b" r="x" q="v" /></test><b/></xml>';
$x = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);

$attr = $x->test[0]->a[0]->attributes();
echo $attr['a']; // "b"

If you want it to be a "true" array, you're gonna have to loop:

$attrArray = array();
$attr = $x->test[0]->a[0]->attributes();

foreach($attr as $key=>$val){
    $attrArray[(string)$key] = (string)$val;
}

edited Jul 11, 2012 at 19:52

answered Jul 11, 2012 at 19:32

gen_Eric

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8 Comments

mseancole Over a year ago

Yes, but the problem with this is that it still thinks of itself as a SimpleXML element and therefore you would have to typecast $attr[ 'a' ] to a string for it to work properly. I'm passing this array to another class that doesn't know what type its supposed to be, only that it needs to be an array.

mseancole Over a year ago

Ah, you got it in the edit... Is the loop "better" than what I'm currently doing? I would think that doing so without a loop would be quicker.

gen_Eric Over a year ago

@showerhead: I don't know if it's better, but I've always learned not to directly read the '@attributes' property.

gen_Eric Over a year ago

@showerhead: Maybe I'm wrong, I'm not sure where I got that from. If it works for you, I say use it. The docs don't mention '@attributes' at all, neither use it nor not use it.

mseancole Over a year ago

I'll keep an eye out for it. Assuming no other answers appear I'll accept this one later tonight. Though I think I'll do some performance tests on the two solutions to see which one works better.

|

Kus · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-13 08:31:08Z

4

You could convert the whole xml document into an array:

$array = json_decode(json_encode((array) simplexml_load_string("<response>{$xml}</response>")), true);

For more information see: https://github.com/gaarf/XML-string-to-PHP-array

answered May 13, 2014 at 8:31

Kus

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Comments

Manik Thakur · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-13 12:15:13Z

For me below method worked

function xmlToArray(SimpleXMLElement $xml)
{
    $parser = function (SimpleXMLElement $xml, array $collection = []) use (&$parser) {
        $nodes = $xml->children();
        $attributes = $xml->attributes();

        if (0 !== count($attributes)) {
            foreach ($attributes as $attrName => $attrValue) {
                $collection['@attributes'][$attrName] = strval($attrValue);
            }
        }

        if (0 === $nodes->count()) {
            if($xml->attributes())
            {
                $collection['value'] = strval($xml);
            }
            else
            {
                $collection = strval($xml);
            }
            return $collection;
        }

        foreach ($nodes as $nodeName => $nodeValue) {
            if (count($nodeValue->xpath('../' . $nodeName)) < 2) {
                $collection[$nodeName] = $parser($nodeValue);
                continue;
            }

            $collection[$nodeName][] = $parser($nodeValue);
        }

        return $collection;
    };

    return [
        $xml->getName() => $parser($xml)
    ];
}

This also provides me all the attributes as well, which I didn't get from any other method.

aphodius · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-11 20:25:22Z

0

I think you will have to loop through. You can get it into array once you read xml.

<?php
function objectsIntoArray($arrObjData, $arrSkipIndices = array())
{
$arrData = array();

// if input is object, convert into array
if (is_object($arrObjData)) {
    $arrObjData = get_object_vars($arrObjData);
}

if (is_array($arrObjData)) {
    foreach ($arrObjData as $index => $value) {
        if (is_object($value) || is_array($value)) {
            $value = objectsIntoArray($value, $arrSkipIndices); // recursive call
        }
        if (in_array($index, $arrSkipIndices)) {
            continue;
        }
        $arrData[$index] = $value;
    }
}
return $arrData;
}

$xmlStr = file_get_contents($xml_file);
$xmlObj = simplexml_load_string($xmlStr);
$arrXml = objectsIntoArray($xmlObj);

foreach($arrXml as $attr)
  foreach($attr as $key->$val){
 if($key == '@attributes') ....
}

edited Jul 11, 2012 at 20:25

answered Jul 11, 2012 at 19:41

aphodius

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2 Comments

gen_Eric Over a year ago

What is objectsIntoArray? Also, you shouldn't read the '@attributes' directly, that's what ->attributes() is for.

aphodius Over a year ago

Sorry, I pasted from my code missing top part just edited it.

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