php - how to check if there is text within XML element

Question

:) Let's say that i have that code:

<sample number="1">TEXT</sample>

but sometimes it could be

<sample number"1"/>

Q: How to check if it's self closed or not ? Or I want to check if it's there TEXT within element sample

Note: I'm using that way to retrieve XML doc:

$content = @file_get_contents($url);
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($content);

Why is it important to know exactly how the user wrote the syntax? Would you want to reject <sample number="1"></sample>? — Jeremiah Willcock
– Jeremiah Willcock, Commented Feb 25, 2011 at 1:01
This is not an answer, but... it's usually wrong to want to detect this, for pedantic semantic reasons. Just parse the XML in whatever [valid] form it comes, deal with the data, and move on. — Lightness Races in Orbit
– Lightness Races in Orbit, Commented Feb 25, 2011 at 1:02
No, I want to reject <sample number"1"/>. and retrieve data from <sample number="1">sample</sample> — CappY
– CappY, Commented Feb 25, 2011 at 1:02
I ask because, that data contain link to IMG,and when it's self closed -> no IMG, site looks ugly. I want to handle this. — CappY
– CappY, Commented Feb 25, 2011 at 1:03
@CappY: So you just want to determine if there is text within the element? — Jeremiah Willcock
– Jeremiah Willcock, Commented Feb 25, 2011 at 1:03

FMaz008 · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-25 01:30:00Z

2

You need to type cast the element to string, then check if it's empty or not. Here's a quick example:

$test = simplexml_load_string("<test><elem test='12'><sub /><sub /></elem><elem test='12'>hi</elem><elem test='9' /><elem /></test>");
foreach($test as $elem){

    echo "\n";
    var_dump($elem);
    if((string)$elem == '' && $elem->count() == 0)
        echo 'Empty';
    else
        echo 'Full';


}

Will return:

object(SimpleXMLElement)#3 (2) {
  ["@attributes"]=>
  array(1) {
    ["test"]=>
    string(2) "12"
  }
  ["sub"]=>
  array(2) {
    [0]=>
    object(SimpleXMLElement)#4 (0) {
    }
    [1]=>
    object(SimpleXMLElement)#5 (0) {
    }
  }
}
Full
object(SimpleXMLElement)#5 (2) {
  ["@attributes"]=>
  array(1) {
    ["test"]=>
    string(2) "12"
  }
  [0]=>
  string(2) "hi"
}
Full
object(SimpleXMLElement)#3 (1) {
  ["@attributes"]=>
  array(1) {
    ["test"]=>
    string(1) "9"
  }
}
Empty
object(SimpleXMLElement)#5 (0) {
}
Empty

answered Feb 25, 2011 at 1:30

FMaz008

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3 Comments

CappY Over a year ago

That wasn't so clean solution for me, and after 1hour spending in searching cleaner solution i found that way works: if((string) $xml->sample != NULL) But thanks for answering. :)

FMaz008 Over a year ago

I don't see how this might be cleaner. You're typecasting something to a string, and then compare it to something that is not a string. As you make a != and not a !==. php 'convert' the NULL to "". So basically, you're doing the same thing as me, except that you just check if their's text content, and not if their's child-elements.

maryisdead Over a year ago

@FMaz008's answer is perfectly fine for me, I don't see what's so unclear about it. In addition, your suggestion (string-casting and then comparing to null) doesn't make any sense and is misleading since string-casting will never result in null.

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