PHP: convert simpleXML object to two-dimensional array

Question

I am pretty new to PHP and hope someone here can help me with the following.

I have a simpleXML object that looks as follows (shortened):

<ranks>
  <history>
    <ranking>1</ranking>
    <groupName>currentMonth<item>item1</item><groupCount>53</groupCount></groupName>
  </history>
  <history>
    <ranking>2</ranking>
    <groupName>currentMonth<item>item2</item><groupCount>20</groupCount></groupName>
  </history>
  <history>
    <ranking>3</ranking>
    <groupName>currentMonth<item>item3</item><groupCount>7</groupCount></groupName>
  </history>
  <history>
    <ranking>4</ranking>
    <groupName>currentMonth<item>item4</item><groupCount>4</groupCount></groupName>
  </history>
  <history>
    <ranking>5</ranking>
    <groupName>currentMonth<item>item5</item><groupCount>2</groupCount></groupName>
  </history>
  <history>
    <ranking>6</ranking>
    <groupName>currentMonth<item>item6</item><groupCount>2</groupCount></groupName>
  </history>
  <history>
    <ranking>7</ranking>
    <groupName>currentMonth<item>item7</item><groupCount>1</groupCount></groupName>
  </history>
</ranks>

How can I convert this into an array using PHP that has the following structure (hard-coded for demoing)?

$arr = array("item1"=>"53","item2"=>"20","item3"=>"7","item4"=>"4","item5"=>"2","item6"=>"2","item7"=>"1");

Many thanks for any help with this, Mike.

MrCode · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-09 10:28:56Z

1

It can be done by iterating over the history elements like so:

$obj = simplexml_load_string($xml); // change to simplexml_load_file if needed

$arr = array();

foreach($obj->history as $history){
    $arr[(string)$history->groupName->item] = (int)$history->groupName->groupCount;
}

Outputs

Array
(
    [item1] => 53
    [item2] => 20
    [item3] => 7
    [item4] => 4
    [item5] => 2
    [item6] => 2
    [item7] => 1
)

answered Apr 9, 2014 at 10:28

MrCode

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1 Comment

Mike Over a year ago

Thanks a lot, this is great ! - How do I get the commas added between the different items ?

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