How Do I Convert a SimpleXML Object to a String in PHP?

Converting a SimpleXML Object to a String

When working with SimpleXML objects, it's sometimes necessary to convert an object to a string, regardless of the context. Consider the following XML:

<channel>
  <item>
    <title>This is title 1</title>
  </item>
</channel>

The following code successfully retrieves the title as a string:

$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstring);
echo $xml->channel->item->title;

However, if you attempt to store the title in an array, it remains a SimpleXML object:

$foo = array( $xml->channel->item->title );

To avoid this issue, you can use one of the following methods:

Typecasting the SimpleXMLObject

The simplest solution is to typecast the SimpleXMLObject to a string:

$foo = array( (string) $xml->channel->item->title );

This code calls the __toString() method on the SimpleXMLObject, which converts it to a string. While this method is not publicly available, it can be invoked using this technique.

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