Converting XML file with one node using simplexml_load_string()

Question

I have simple xml file, with one or more nodes, for examle:

<?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?>
<nodes>
 <node>
  <value>Val1</value>
 </node> 
</nodes>

Is it possible, using simplexml_load_string() function, for file with one node (as above) to get:

SimpleXMLElement Object
(
    [node] => Array
        (
            [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [value] => Val1
                )
        )
)

with [0] key, like for a xml file with more nodes, not:

SimpleXMLElement Object
(
    [node] => SimpleXMLElement Object
        (
            [value] => Val1
        )
)

Because next I need convert it to array with the same deep, whether from a file with one or more nodes

Answer 1

SimpleXML already does what you want - the difference between the two is only in the output from print_r, which is showing the most concise way to access the elements, not the only way.

Specifically, $xml->node->value and $xml->node[0]->value[0] can always be used to reference the same node, and foreach ( $xml->node as $node ) always works even if there is only one matching node.

This is why it is generally a bad idea to "blindly" convert an XML structure into a PHP array - instead, use foreach loops and property access to extract whatever information you need.

You can try it for yourself with this code:

// Single node
$xml1 = <<<XML
<?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?>
<nodes>
 <node>
  <value>Val1</value>
 </node> 
</nodes>
XML;

$sx1 = simplexml_load_string($xml1);
print_r($sx1); // misleading!
echo $sx1->node->value, PHP_EOL;
echo $sx1->node->value[0], PHP_EOL;
echo $sx1->node[0]->value[0], PHP_EOL;
echo $sx1->node[0]->value, PHP_EOL;
foreach ( $sx1->node as $node ) {
   echo $node->value, PHP_EOL;
}

// Two nodes with same name
$xml2 = <<<XML
<?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?>
<nodes>
 <node>
  <value>Val1</value>
 </node> 
 <node>
  <value>Val2</value>
 </node> 
</nodes>
XML;

$sx2 = simplexml_load_string($xml2);
print_r($sx2); // misleading!
echo $sx2->node->value, PHP_EOL;
echo $sx2->node[0]->value, PHP_EOL;
echo $sx2->node[0]->value[0], PHP_EOL;
echo $sx2->node->value[0], PHP_EOL;
foreach ( $sx2->node as $node ) {
   echo $node->value, PHP_EOL;
}