Getting XML keys and values easily in PHP

Question

I'm working with various XML inputs and outputs and simply want to grab the keys and values like you can with an array.

Is there a simple function that can convert xml to an array or access the keys and values or am I going about this completely the wrong way?

<?php
$xmlstr = "
<key>
    <parent1>
     <child1>val1</child1>
     <child2>val2</child2>
    </parent1>
    <parent2>val4</parent2>
    <parent3>
     <child1 var="1">
      <gchild>
       <child>value</child>
       <child>value</child>
       <parent>
        <child>value</child>
       </parent>
      </gchild>
     </child1>
    </parent3>
</key>";

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr);
$xmlarray= convertXMLtoArray($xml);

echo $xmlarray[0]; //outputs: key
echo $xmlarray['key'][1]; //outputs: parent2 or array(child1->val1, child2->...)
echo $xmlarray['key']['parent1']['child1'][0]; //outputs: val1
?>

Answer 1

simplexml_load_file

$xml = simplexml_load_file('test.xml');
var_dump($xml);