How to read specific amounts of code in a SimpleXMLElement

Question

I'm trying to read a part of a SimpleXMLElement/XML file. The problem is I can't get the desired text anyway I try.

I tried debugging the XML I had, so I printed it this way:

 foreach($response->items as $item) {
                   fwrite($file, var_export($item, TRUE));
               }

which outputs

SimpleXMLElement::__set_state(array( 'item' => array ( 0 => SimpleXMLElement::__set_state(array( 'id' => '000-1', 'description' => 'Notebook Prata', 'quantity' => '1', 'amount' => '1830.00', )), 1 => SimpleXMLElement::__set_state(array( 'id' => 'AB01', 'description' => 'Notebook Preto', 'quantity' => '2', 'amount' => '1340.00', )), ), ))

But when I try to retrieve the data inside the specific items, the return is empty. I tried the following:

fwrite($file, $item->amount);
//
fwrite($file, $item->{'amount'});
//
fwrite($file, $items->$item->amount);

But nothing seems to work.

How can I correct the syntax, to obtain the expected? I would want the file to have written '1830.00' and '1340.00', but I only get blanks.

XML LIKE THIS FOR REFERENCE

Answer 1

You have been fooled by the fact that this seems logical if you read it in English:

foreach($response->items as $item) {

But it doesn't match the structure of the XML.

Consider this XML:

<?xml version="1.0"?><a>
    <b>
        <c>first C</c>
        <c>second C</c>
    </b>
</a>

If $response is the whole document (<a>...</a>), then to access each <c>, you need to do this:

foreach($response->b->c as $c)

Your XML has this same structure:

<?xml version="1.0"?><transaction>
    ...
    <items>
        <item>first item</item>
        <item>second item</item>
    </items>
    ...
</transaction>

So your loop needs to be:

foreach($response->items->item as $item)

Then the children of <item> will be available as you expected, such as the <amount>:

echo $item->amount;