How to handle 'simplexml_load_string' error?

Question

I am looking to handle a situation whereby the XML file that I at trying to retrieve is not ready or is not available.

I am using:

 $object = simplexml_load_string($file);

Sometimes, I get the following error:

'Start tag expected, '<' not found in etc...'

I have tried the following, and it doesn't work.

 if($object === false){
 // code here
}

Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-20 22:45:59Z

1

simplexml_load_string can return false if there is an error. It can also emit a warning.

From the manual:

Returns an object of class SimpleXMLElement with properties containing the data held within the xml document, or FALSE on failure.

Produces an E_WARNING error message for each error found in the XML data.

Use libxml_use_internal_errors() to suppress all XML errors, and libxml_get_errors() to iterate over them afterwards.

// suppress warnings so we can handle them ourselves
libxml_use_internal_errors(true);

$object = simplexml_load_string($file);

if ($object === false) {
    // oh no
    $errors = libxml_get_errors();
    // do something with them
    print_r($errors);
    // really you'll want to loop over them and handle them as necessary for your needs
}

More detail on libxml_get_errors here.

edited Nov 20, 2023 at 22:45

CommunityBot

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answered Nov 14, 2016 at 9:14

bcmcfc

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2 Comments

dave Over a year ago

Implementing what you suggested I nevertheless get 'Warning: simplexml_load_string(): Entity: line 1: parser error : Start tag expected, '<' not found in....' - is this something i need to turn off in the php.innit file?

bcmcfc Over a year ago

My bad, it needs to be passed with true as an option! Feels like the default should be true rather than false, considering the name "use internal errors".

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