How to Convert PHP Arrays to SimpleXML Objects?

Converting Arrays to SimpleXML Objects in PHP

In PHP, converting arrays to SimpleXML objects can be a convenient way to manipulate XML data.

Solution

The following code snippet provides a solution to the problem of converting an array to a SimpleXML object:

// Array to be converted
$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
            )
        )
    )
);

// Create a SimpleXMLElement object
$xml_data = new SimpleXMLElement('<?xml version="1.0"?><student_info></student_info>');

// Function to convert array to XML
function array_to_xml($data, &$xml_data) {
    foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
        if (is_array($value)) {
            if (is_numeric($key)) {
                $key = 'item' . $key; // Handle numeric keys
            }
            $subnode = $xml_data->addChild($key);
            array_to_xml($value, $subnode);
        } else {
            $xml_data->addChild("$key", htmlspecialchars("$value"));
        }
    }
}

// Convert array to XML
array_to_xml($data, $xml_data);

// Save the generated XML file
$result = $xml_data->asXML('/file/path/name.xml');

This code defines a function called array_to_xml that recursively iterates through the array and adds SimpleXMLElement nodes to the provided $xml_data object. It handles numeric array keys by adding a prefix of item. The htmlspecialchars function is used to escape any special characters in the array values to ensure proper XML formation. Finally, the generated XML is saved to a file using asXML.

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