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Simplexml_load_string($string) returns an empty object but $string contains xml? code below

Answer 1

+3 A:

UPDATE: to print firstname (or any other), you can use the usual SimpleXML addressing mechanisms. your case is a little more complicated because you are using namespaces. still workable though - try something like this:

$data->children('ns7', true)->user[0]->lastName

re: i am expecting print_r($data) to print as if it were an array [...]: this expectation is wrong. it would surely be handy, but that's not how it works. to print a SimpleXML object's xml string representation, use asXML().

UPDATE END

what are you expecting print_r($data) to print? SimpleXMLElement Object ( ) seems to be perfectly valid output to me. it doesn't mean that there is something wrong with the xml. if you want to see the actual xml of your SimpleXMLElement Object, try print $data->asXML().

ax 2010-07-02 11:01:22

Thanks any ideas how to print firstname? or any other?

2010-07-02 11:04:31

Iam expecing to print_r($data) to print as if it were an array .. 'firstname' => firstname value etc. It was working ok for me but perhaps some changes on xml data source made it this empty.

2010-07-02 11:11:25

see my updated answer.

ax 2010-07-02 11:28:56

Answer 2

+1 A:

Well, this is not an empty object. Indeed, if you print_r it it shows what you showed us. But if you for example do

echo $data->asXML();

the result will be correct:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<ns7:users xmlns="http://www.example.com/xml/ns/rs" xmlns:ns2="http://www.example.com/xml/ns/users" xmlns:ns3="http://www.example.com/2004/11/tHistory" xmlns:ns4="http://www.example.com/fsi/tHistory" xmlns:ns5="http://www.example.com/2005/10/tHistory" xmlns:ns6="http://www.example.com/2010/03/cs" xmlns:ns7="http://www.example.com/2005/10/users" xmlns:ns8="http://www.example.com/2010/03/tHistory"&gt;
    <ns7:user><ns7:id>Matt.Smith</ns7:id>
    <ns7:lastName>Smith</ns7:lastName>
    <ns7:firstName>Matt</ns7:firstName>
    <ns7:otherName/>
    <ns7:gender>male</ns7:gender>
    <ns7:email>[email protected]</ns7:email>
    <ns7:locale>en</ns7:locale>
    <ns7:role><ns7:id>A</ns7:id>
    <ns7:name>System Administrator</ns7:name></ns7:role>
    <ns7:employeeNumber/>
...

Just use the object as simpleXML is meant to :)

To check if it loaded correctly, see the doc:

Errors/Exceptions

Produces an E_WARNING error message for each error found in the XML data and throws an exception if errors were detected.

[at page http://www.php.net/manual/en/simplexmlelement.construct.php ]

Tomasz Struczyński 2010-07-02 11:01:50

Thanks indeed it works :) how do i print firstname, lastname then?

2010-07-02 11:03:50

Well, as in AXs answer :)

Tomasz Struczyński 2010-07-02 13:31:03

Answer 3

A:

Or to var dump it remove the ns7 namespacing from nodes, leave them on the root:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
    <ns7:users xmlns="http://www.example.com/xml/ns/rs"
        xmlns:ns2="http://www.example.com/xml/ns/users"
        xmlns:ns3="http://www.example.com/2004/11/tHistory"
        xmlns:ns4="http://www.example.com/fsi/tHistory"
        xmlns:ns5="http://www.example.com/2005/10/tHistory"
        xmlns:ns6="http://www.example.com/2010/03/cs"
        xmlns:ns7="http://www.example.com/2005/10/users"
        xmlns:ns8="http://www.example.com/2010/03/tHistory"&gt;
    <user><id>Matt.Smith</id>
    <lastName>Smith</lastName>
    <firstName>Matt</firstName>
    <otherName></otherName>
    <gender>male</gender>
    <email>[email protected]</email>
    <locale>en</locale>
    <role><id>A</id>
    <name>System Administrator</name></role>
    <employeeNumber></employeeNumber>
    <organization>
        <id>8000</id>
        <name>Organisation Title</name>
   </organization>
    <organization>
        <id>20707</id>
        <name>London Office</name>
   </organization>
    <attribute>
        <code>0</code>
        <description>Unassigned</description>
   </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <code>0</code>
        <description>Unassigned</description>
   </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <code></code>
        <description>Unassigned</description>
   </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <code></code>
        <description>Unassigned</description></attribute>
        <attribute><code></code>
        <description>Unassigned</description>
   </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <code></code>
        <description>Unassigned</description>
       </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <code></code>
        <description>Unassigned</description>
   </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <code></code>
        <description>Unassigned</description>
   </attribute>
   </user>
</ns7:users>

Ashley 2010-07-02 11:06:01

thanks .. Any ideas how to access firstname, lastname etc?

2010-07-02 11:09:25

As it's an object you can use standard object referencing:$data->user->firstName

Ashley 2010-07-02 11:29:12

Answer 4

A:

Yes I had the same issue and thought that the simplexml_load_string was returning empty since print_r ($data) or echo $data just returned empty.

but if you do $data->name then you do get a valid data ..it kinda wierd but that how it works .. so great tip.. thanks.. it worked for me

mayavi 2010-07-20 21:33:52

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Simplexml_load_string($string) returns an empty object but $string contains xml? code below

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