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PHP simplexml_load_string() Function

❮ PHP SimpleXML Reference

Example

Convert a well-formed XML string into a SimpleXMLElement object, then output keys and elements of the object:

<?php
$note=<<<XML
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
XML;

$xml=simplexml_load_string($note);
print_r($xml);
?>
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Definition and Usage

The simplexml_load_string() function converts a well-formed XML string into a SimpleXMLElement object.

Syntax

simplexml_load_string(data,classname,options,ns,is_prefix);

Parameter Description
data Required. Specifies a well-formed XML string
classname Optional. Specifies the class of the new object
options Optional. Specifies additional Libxml parameters. Is set by specifying the option and 1 or 0 (TRUE or FALSE, e.g. LIBXML_NOBLANKS(1))

Possible values:

  • LIBXML_COMPACT - Activate nodes allocation optimization (may speed up application)
  • LIBXML_DTDATTR - Set default DTD attributes
  • LIBXML_DTDLOAD - Load external subset
  • LIBXML_DTDVALID - Validate with the DTD
  • LIBXML_NOBLANKS - Remove blank nodes
  • LIBXML_NOCDATA - Merge CDATA as text nodes
  • LIBXML_NOEMPTYTAG - Expand empty tags (e.g. <br/> to <br></br>), only available in the DOMDocument->save() and DOMDocument->saveXML() functions
  • LIBXML_NOENT - Substitute entities
  • LIBXML_NOERROR - Do not show error reports
  • LIBXML_NONET - Disable network access while loading documents
  • LIBXML_NOWARNING - Do not show warning reports
  • LIBXML_NOXMLDECL - Drop the XML declaration when saving a document
  • LIBXML_NSCLEAN - Remove redundant namespace declarations
  • LIBXML_PARSEHUGE - Sets XML_PARSE_HUGE flag, which relaxes any hardcoded limit from the parser. This affects limits like maximum depth of a document and limits of the size of text nodes
  • LIBXML_XINCLUDE - Implement XInclude substitution
  • LIBXML_ERR_ERROR - Get recoverable errors
  • LIBXML_ERR_FATAL - Get fatal errors
  • LIBXML_ERR_NONE - Get no errors
  • LIBXML_ERR_WARNING - Get simple warnings
  • LIBXML_VERSION - Get libxml version (e.g. 20605 or 20617)
  • LIBXML_DOTTED_VERSION - Get dotted libxml version (e.g. 2.6.5 or 2.6.17)
ns Optional. Specifies a namespace prefix or URI
is_prefix Optional. Specifies a Boolean value. TRUE if ns is a prefix. FALSE if ns is a URI. Default is FALSE

Technical Details

Return Value: Returns a SimpleXMLElement object on success. FALSE on failure
PHP Version: 5+

More Examples

Example 1

Output the data from each element in the XML string:

<?php
$note=<<<XML
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
XML;

$xml=simplexml_load_string($note);
echo $xml->to . "<br>";
echo $xml->from . "<br>";
echo $xml->heading . "<br>";
echo $xml->body;
?>
Run example »

Example 2

Output the element's name and data for each child node in the XML string:

<?php
$note=<<<XML
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
XML;

$xml=simplexml_load_string($note);
echo $xml->getName() . "<br>";

foreach($xml->children() as $child)
  {
  echo $child->getName() . ": " . $child . "<br>";
  }
?>
Run example »
❮ PHP SimpleXML Reference