PHP how to count xml elements in object returned by simplexml_load_file(),

Question

I have inherited some PHP code (but I've little PHP experience) and can't find how to count some elements in the object returned by simplexml_load_file()

The code is something like this

$xml = simplexml_load_file($feed);
for ($x=0; $x<6; $x++) {
   $title = $xml->channel[0]->item[$x]->title[0];
   echo "<li>" . $title . "</li>\n";
}

It assumes there will be at least 6 <item> elements but sometimes there are fewer so I get warning messages in the output on my development system (though not on live).

How do I extract a count of <item> elements in $xml->channel[0]?

salathe · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-21 20:40:33Z

Here are several options, from my most to least favourite (of the ones provided).

One option is to make use of the SimpleXMLIterator in conjunction with LimitIterator.

$xml   = simplexml_load_file($feed, 'SimpleXMLIterator');
$items = new LimitIterator($xml->channel->item, 0, 6);
foreach ($items as $item) {
    echo "<li>{$item->title}</li>\n";
}

If that looks too scary, or not scary enough, then another is to throw XPath into the mix.

$xml = simplexml_load_file($feed);
$items = $xml->xpath('/rss/channel/item[position() <= 6]');
foreach ($items as $item) {
    echo "<li>{$item->title}</li>\n";
}

Finally, with little change to your existing code, there is also.

$xml = simplexml_load_file($feed);
for ($x=0; $x<6; $x++) {
    // Break out of loop if no more items
    if (!isset($xml->channel[0]->item[$x])) {
        break;
    }
    $title = $xml->channel[0]->item[$x]->title[0];
    echo "<li>" . $title . "</li>\n";
}

Martin Dimitrov · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-21 20:57:43Z

2

The easiest way is to use SimpleXMLElement::count() as:

$xml = simplexml_load_file($feed);
$num = $xml->channel[0]->count();
for ($x=0; $x<$num; $x++) {
   $title = $xml->channel[0]->item[$x]->title[0];
   echo "<li>" . $title . "</li>\n";
}

Also note that the return of $xml->channel[0] is a SimpleXMLElement object. This class implements the Traversable interface so we can use it directly in a foreach loop:

$xml = simplexml_load_file($feed);
foreach($xml->channel[0] as $item {
   $title = $item->title[0];
   echo "<li>" . $title . "</li>\n";
}

answered Sep 21, 2011 at 20:57

Martin Dimitrov

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Comments

tasmaniski · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-21 19:55:35Z

1

You get count by count($xml). I always do it like this:

 $xml = simplexml_load_file($feed);
 foreach($xml as $key => $one_row) {
        echo $one_row->some_xml_chield;
  }

answered Sep 21, 2011 at 19:55

tasmaniski

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2 Comments

RedGrittyBrick Over a year ago

OK, but 6 is an upper limit for display, I guess I can use if $count++ >= 6 { break; } inside the loop.

tasmaniski Over a year ago

Hey, I just find function simpleXMLToArray there link. You can pass xml object to this function and get array, and than you can pass throw element by for($i=0;$i>...){ ... }

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