SimpleXML to Array

Question

I load some XML which produces a SimpleXML Object like so (only displaying one Object)

SimpleXMLElement Object
(
    [Jobs] => SimpleXMLElement Object
    (
        [Job] => Array
            (
                [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [ID] => J000001
                    [Name] => Internal Time
                    [Description] => Use this job to record your internal and non-billable time for activities such as annual leave, sick leave, professional development, staff meetings etc
                    [Client] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                    (
                        [ID] => 8430219
                        [Name] => Fake Client
                    )

                    [ClientOrderNumber] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                    (
                    )

                    [State] => Planned
                    [StartDate] => 2016-03-21T00:00:00
                    [DueDate] => 2017-03-21T00:00:00
                    [InternalID] => 11442733
                    [Assigned] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                    (
                        [Staff] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                            (
                                [ID] => 344460
                                [Name] => Som Name
                            )
                    )
                )
            )
    )
)

What I would like to do is create an array of the client Name and client ID. So I am aiming for something like so

[data] => array (
    8430219 => Fake Client,
    8430343 => Another Client,
    etc
)

At the moment, I can get the name in place, but struggling with the id because it says it is an illegal offset type. This is what I have

foreach($oXML->Jobs as $oEntry) {
    foreach ($oEntry->Job as $data) {
        $jobsArray = array(
            $data->Client->ID => $data->Client->Name
        );
    }
}

How can I create the array based on the SimpleXML Object I have?

Thanks

Possible duplicate of [How to convert xml into array in php?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6578832/how-to-convert-xml-into-array-in-php) — Santosh Ram Kunjir, Apr 04 '16 at 15:54

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 04 '16 at 16:21

First of all, to obtain your desired array you can not use this syntax:

$jobsArray = array( $key => $val );

You have to use something like this:

$jobsArray[$key] = $val;

Otherwise, at each repeating loop, your syntax will override precedent array values.

Then, I suggest you to use XPath to simplify entire process. With XPath queries, you can retrieve a set of nodes with only one search.

Assuming you have this XML:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Jobs>
    <Job>
        <Client>
            <ID>8430219</ID>
            <Name>Fake Client</Name>
        </Client>
        <Client>
            <ID>8430220</ID>
            <Name>Fake Client 2</Name>
        </Client>
    </Job>
    <Job>
        <Client>
            <ID>8430221</ID>
            <Name>Fake Client 3</Name>
        </Client>
    </Job>
</Jobs>

With this xpath query:

$clients = $oXML->xpath( '/Jobs/Job/Client' );

you obtain in $clients all <Client> nodes. Then you can create your array in this way:

$result = array();
foreach( $clients as $client )
{
    $result[$client->ID->__toString()] = $client->Name->__toString();
}

This is $result after foreach loop:

Array
(
    [8430219] => Fake Client
    [8430220] => Fake Client 2
    [8430221] => Fake Client 3
)

Note that we have to cast as string single nodes (that are SimpleXML objects): this is absolutely necessary creating keys, otherwise the array assignment fails. You can obtain same result using (string) $client->ID instead of $client->ID->__toString()

Read more about SimpleXMLElement::xpath
Read more about XPath

SimpleXML to Array

1 Answers1