Search code examples
phpxmlsimplexmlsiblings

PHP: Xml with multiple sibling elements of the same name, maintain order

I have an xml file which looks something like this:

<items>
     <itemA/>
     <itemB/>
     <itemA/>
     <itemA/>
     <itemC/>
 </items>

but I need to process this using php and maintain the elements order. I understand how to access the elements with the same name using simplexml and array notation, but I cannot find a way to iterate through them all maintaining their order.

Solution

  • Select the parent element and iterate over its children, see http://php.net/manual/en/simplexmlelement.children.php

    $xml = new SimpleXMLElement(
'<items>
     <itemA/>
     <itemB/>
     <itemA/>
     <itemA/>
     <itemC/>
 </items>');

foreach ($xml->children() as $item) {
  //...
}