PHP Warning: Illegal string offset 'tag'

Question

I'm trying to fix some bugs in a program that I'm new to:

if  (strtoupper($xmlnode["tag"])=="RANDOM"){

    $liarray=array();

    $children = $xmlnode["children"];

    for ($randomc=0;$randomc<sizeof($children);$randomc++){
        if (strtoupper($children[$randomc]["tag"]) == "LI"){
            $liarray[]=$randomc;
        }
    }

On the strtoupper($children[$randomc]["tag"]) I get the error:

Warning: Illegal string offset 'tag'

Why this is happening and how might I correct it? I can add more code if needed.

Answer 1

Your $xmlnode['children'] is a string, not an array.

It's looking for something structured like:

$xmlnode['children'] = [
                            ['tag' => 'LI'],
                            ['tag' => 'LU'],
                            ['tag' => 'LA'],
                            ['tag' => 'LO'],
                            ['tag' => 'LE'],
                            ['tag' => 'LR'],
                        ];

But you are actually giving it something like $xmlnode['children'] = "I am a string";

EDIT: Complete answer:

You first need to check if the current item in the $xmlnode['children'] array is an array, and not a string, then process only the keys that are an array.

$xmlnode['tag'] = 'RANDOM';
$xmlnode['children'] = array(
    " ",
    array(
        'tag' => 'li',
        'attributes' => "",
        'value' => "Tell me a story."
    ),
    " ",
    array(
        'tag' => 'li',
        'attributes' => "",
        'value' => "Oh, you are a poet."
    ),
    " ",
    array(
        'tag' => 'li',
        'attributes' => "",
        'value' => "I do not understand."
    ),  
    " "
);

$liarray = array();
if  (strtoupper($xmlnode["tag"]) == "RANDOM") {

    $children = $xmlnode["children"];

    for ($randomc=0; $randomc < sizeof($children); $randomc++) {
        if (is_array($children[$randomc])) {
            if (strtoupper($children[$randomc]["tag"]) == "LI") {
                $liarray[] = $randomc;
            }
        }
    }
    print_r($liarray);  
}