Problem in getting multidimensional array from simple xml object

Question

Hi there, As a newbie I need your help in getting multidimensional array from simplexml object. suppose my array is like: just for getting idea:
Here $data is a simplexml object contains below xml:

<users>
  <user>
    <id></id>
    <nm></nm>
    <gender>
      <male></male>
      <female></female>
    </gender>
  </user>
</users>

Here I an perfectly getting array of each user, but in that array when it comes to gender, it shows nothing. i need array of gender too. I am using following code:

foreach($data->users as $users)
{
  $arr1 = array();
  foreach($users as $user)
  {
    foreach($user as $k=>$v)
    {
      $arr1[$k] = (string) $v;
    }
  }
  $arr2[] = $arr1;
}

Any suggestion?

Answer 1

You're not using the foreach iterator correctly. It should be something like this:

$users = simplexml_load_string($the_xml_thing_you_posted);

foreach ($users->user as $user)
{
    $arr[] = array(
        'id' => (string) $user->id,
        'nm' => (string) $user->nm
    );
}

Now I have no idea what you're trying to do with your gender thing, both elements are empty, what does that mean?

Answer 2

foreach($user as $k=>$v) doesn't iterate over all the child elements in your user element. It iterates over all user elements that are children of $users. For illustration:

$data = new SimpleXMLElement('<data>
  <users id="1">
    <user id="user1a"></user>
    <user id="user1b"></user>
  </users>
  <users id="2">
    <user id="user2a"></user>
    <user id="user2b"></user>
  </users>
</data>');

foreach($data->users as $users)
{
  echo 'users id: ', $users['id'], "\n";
  foreach($users as $user)
  {
    echo "  user id: ", $user['id'], "\n";
  }
}

prints

users id: 1
  user id: user1a
  user id: user1b
users id: 2
  user id: user2a
  user id: user2b

You probably want something more like

$data = new SimpleXMLElement('<data>
  <users>
    <user>
      <propA>A1</propA>
      <propB>B1</propB>
      <propC>C1</propC>
    </user>
    <user>
      <propA>A2</propA>
      <propB>B2</propB>
      <propC>C2</propC>
    </user>
  </users>
</data>');

$result = array();
foreach($data->users as $users)
{
  foreach($users as $user)
  {
    $arr = array();
    foreach($user->children() as $e) {
      $arr[$e->getName()] = (string)$e;
    }
    $result[] = $arr;
  }
}

print_r($result);

which prints

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [propA] => A1
            [propB] => B1
            [propC] => C1
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [propA] => A2
            [propB] => B2
            [propC] => C2
        )

)

Answer 3

Hi guys,

I tried the way you told but really messing up on some points. I am getting array fields when it comes to children nodes, i go off the track. My single users simplexml object is:

SimpleXMLElement Object ( [users] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [@attributes] => Array ( [type] => array ) [user] => Array ( [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [id] => 1011 [name] => saroj [location] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( ) [description] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( ) [profile_image_url] => http://a5.example.com/profile_images/img_normal.jpg [url] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( ) [created_at] => Fri Apr 16 17:04:13 +0000 2010 [status] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [created_at] => Wed May 26 02:56:03 +0000 2008 [id] => 1473 [text] => hi enjoying here! [in_reply_to_user_id] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( ) ) )

To get this into array I am writing code as below :

$users = simplexml_load_string($xml);

$arr2 = array(); foreach($users->users->user as $user) {
$arr1 = array(); foreach($user as $k=>$v) {
$arr1[$k] = (string) $v; } $arr2[] = $arr1; }

I am getting all the fields as expected from arr2() instead of the status field which contains an array (imp: id & created_at fields repeated), it gives just key as status. While trying differently i get some of the fields of status array too. Please help me on this, i am really trying it from last two days. Help will be greatly appreciated.