How to read xml data in php and convert it into an array

In many development projects, XML is widely used as configuration files, data transmission, and even document media. In web development, the PHP language also plays an important role, and PHP reading xml and converting it into an array is a basic and necessary skill. This article will describe the process in detail.

1. Reading XML

Before reading XML, we need to obtain an XML file instance. There are many methods, such as getting it from the server, uploading files, writing directly in scripts, etc. Here is an example of getting an XML file from the server:

<?php
$xmlFile = &#39;example.xml&#39;;   //设置XML文件路径
$xml = simplexml_load_file($xmlFile);   //将文件载入到对象中
?>

Here we use the simplexml_load_file() method, which can load XML content into an object. An object can represent an entire XML document or a single element. The returned object can be used as a simple array.

2. Convert into an array

Before converting the XML file into an array, we need to understand the basic structure of the XML file. There are three basic node types in XML: elements, attributes and text nodes.

The following is an example:

<person>
    <name>John Smith</name>
    <age>30</age>
    <gender>M</gender>
    <address>
        <city>New York</city>
        <street>123 Main St</street>
        <zipcode>10000</zipcode>
    </address>
</person>

Next, let us take a look at how to convert XML into a PHP array:

<?php
function xmlToArray($xml) {
    $result = [];
    foreach ($xml->children() as $element) {
        $elementName = $element->getName();
        if(count($element->children()) > 0) {
            $result[$elementName] = xmlToArray($element);
        } else {
            $result[$elementName] = trim((string)$element);
        }
        foreach($element->attributes() as $attrName => $attrValue) {
            $result['attribute'][$attrName] = (string)$attrValue;
        }
    }
    return $result;
}
?>

As shown in the above code, we use recursion here function. First, we traverse the XML node, processing its elements and attributes. If the current node has child nodes, the function is called recursively to convert it into a multidimensional array. If the node has no children, use that as the value of the item.

In addition, we can also add an attribute. For each element, we loop through its attributes and add them as array items to the "attribute" array.

3. Using arrays

Now we have converted the XML into a PHP array. Next, we can use the array we just converted to get the values ​​in the document.

<?php
$xmlFile = &#39;example.xml&#39;;   //设置XML文件路径
$xml = simplexml_load_file($xmlFile);   //将文件载入到对象中
$result = xmlToArray($xml);   //转换成数组
echo $result[&#39;person&#39;][&#39;name&#39;];   //输出John Smith
echo $result[&#39;person&#39;][&#39;address&#39;][&#39;city&#39;];   //输出New York
?>

Using this method, we can process and manage XML documents more conveniently.

4. Summary

This article introduces how to use PHP to read XML files and convert them into multi-dimensional arrays. Although converting XML into PHP arrays may be a bit tedious, it is still a very necessary skill in web development. At the same time, converting a simple XML file into a PHP array is only a basic process. There are many advanced uses of XML, involving DTD (Document Type Definition) and XSLT (XML Stylesheet Language Transformation). I hope that while learning PHP to obtain XML and convert it into an array, you can also understand the basic knowledge of XML and apply it to more complex projects.

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