Getting XML attribute from the inner node using PHP SimpleXML is failing

Question

Chaps, I am trying to get attributes of the 'file' node in the following XML with SimpleXml but every time is gives me back null. I have successfully got the attributes for the study node but fail to get the 'file' atts .

here is the xml :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<studies>
  <study uid="1.3.12.2" acc="181">
    <date>20051218</date>
    <time>2156</time>
    <ref>CG</ref>
    <desc>Abdomen</desc>
    <id></id>
    <path>S00001</path>
    <modality>CR</modality>
    <reports>
  <file cat="UNK" date="20141124">Card_Cloud.txt</file>
</reports>
</study>

and here is my code :

$studyXML = new SimpleXMLElement($studyXML);
$studyXML_array = array();
foreach ($studyXML ->study as $study)
{

// Getting uid and accession from XML attributes
$uid = (!empty($study)) ? (String)$study->attributes()->uid : '';
$acc = (!empty($study)) ? (String)$study->attributes()->acc : '';



// Getting the reports and putting them in an array
$reports = array ();
foreach($study->reports as $rep)
{
  $cat = (String)$rep->attributes()->cat;
  $reports[] = (String)$rep->file;

}

// Constructing the xml as an array
$studyXML_array[] = array
                    (
                      'uid'      => $uid,
                      'acc'      => $acc,
                      'date'     => (String)$study->date,                          
                      'reports'  => $reports
                    );

}

I can get "uid" and "acc" but I can't get "cat" and "date" inside file node. When I look at the array of the xml in my debug variables I can see uid and acc attributes but no sign of cat and date attributes.

I Would really appreciate any help.

I prefer to stick to SimpleXML as all my code is using that so far.

Cheers

Answer 1

If you're trying to use print_r()/var_dump() to check, then it will do no justice. But it is there, try to traverse to it along with using ->attributes() inside the foreach as well:

$studyXML = new SimpleXMLElement($studyXML);
$studyXML_array = array();
foreach ($studyXML ->study as $study)
{

    // Getting uid and accession from XML attributes
    $uid = (!empty($study)) ? (String)$study->attributes()->uid : '';
    $acc = (!empty($study)) ? (String)$study->attributes()->acc : '';

    // Getting the reports and putting them in an array
    $reports = array();
    // loop each attribute
    foreach($study->reports->file->attributes() as $key => $rep)
    {
        $reports[$key] = (string) $rep;
    }

    // Constructing the xml as an array
    $studyXML_array[] = array(
        'uid'      => $uid,
        'acc'      => $acc,
        'date'     => (String) $study->date,
        'reports'  => $reports
        );
}

echo '<pre>';
print_r($studyXML_array);

Sample Output:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [uid] => 1.3.12.2
            [acc] => 181
            [date] => 20051218
            [reports] => Array
                (
                    [cat] => UNK
                    [date] => 20141124
                )

        )

)