How to Convert a PHP Array into a SimpleXML Object?

How to Convert an Array to a SimpleXML Object in PHP

In PHP, you can effortlessly convert an array to a SimpleXML object, a powerful tool for manipulating XML data. This technique enables you to easily create or modify XML documents programmatically.

Converting Arrays to SimpleXML

To convert an array to a SimpleXML object, you can use the following steps:

1. Create a new SimpleXML object using the SimpleXMLElement class.
2. Call the array_to_xml function (defined below) to recursively convert the array into XML elements.
3. Utilize the asXML method to save the resulting XML document to a file or output it directly.

The array_to_xml Function

Here's the PHP code for the array_to_xml function:

function array_to_xml($data, &$xml_data) {
    foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
        if (is_array($value)) {
            if (is_numeric($key)) {
                $key = 'item' . $key; // Dealing with <0/>..<n/> issues
            }
            $subnode = $xml_data->addChild($key);
            array_to_xml($value, $subnode);
        } else {
            $xml_data->addChild("$key", htmlspecialchars("$value"));
        }
    }
}

Example

Consider the following PHP array:

$data = array(
    'total_stud' => 500,
    0 => array(
        'student' => array(
            'id' => 1,
            'name' => 'abc',
            'address' => array(
                'city' => 'Pune',
                'zip' => '411006'
            )
        )
    ),
    1 => array(
        'student' => array(
            'id' => 2,
            'name' => 'xyz',
            'address' => array(
                'city' => 'Mumbai',
                'zip' => '400906'
            )
        )
    )
);

Resultant XML

After converting the array using the array_to_xml function, the resulting XML would look like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<student_info>
    <total_stud>500</total_stud>
    <student>
        <id>1</id>
        <name>abc</name>
        <address>
            <city>Pune</city>
            <zip>411006</zip>
        </address>
    </student>
    <student>
        <id>1</id>
        <name>abc</name>
        <address>
            <city>Mumbai</city>
            <zip>400906</zip>
        </address>
    </student>
</student_info>

Conclusion

Converting arrays to SimpleXML objects in PHP allows you to work with XML data conveniently and efficiently. The asXML method provides the flexibility to save the generated XML to a file or output it directly, making this technique highly versatile and useful for web development, data processing, and many other applications.

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