simplexml_import_dom

    (PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

    simplexml_import_dom — Get a SimpleXMLElement object from an XML or HTML node

    Description

    simplexml_import_dom(object $node, ?string $class_name = SimpleXMLElement::class): ?SimpleXMLElement

    This function takes a node of a DOM document and makes it into a SimpleXML node. This new object can then be used as a native SimpleXML element.

    Parameters

    node

    A DOM Element node

    class_name

    You may use this optional parameter so that simplexml_import_dom() will return an object of the specified class. That class should extend the SimpleXMLElement class.

    Return Values

    Returns a SimpleXMLElement or null on failure.

    Errors/Exceptions

    Throws a TypeError when passed a non-XML or non-HTML node.

    Changelog

    Version Description
    8.4.0 This function now throws a TypeError instead of a ValueError when passed a non-XML or non-HTML node.

    Examples

    Example #1 Importing DOM

    <?php
    $dom     = new DOMDocument;
    $dom->loadXML('<books><book><title>blah</title></book></books>');
    if (!    $dom) {
    echo     'Error while parsing the document';
    exit;
    }

    $s = simplexml_import_dom($dom);

    echo     $s->book[0]->title;
    ?>

    The above example will output:

    blah

    See Also

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    User Contributed Notes 3 notes

    up
    -1
    paul dot allsopp at digital-pig dot com
    1 year ago
    Why not just:
    simplexml_import_dom(dom_import_simplexml($SimpleXmlNode))
    up
    -2
    shirkaen at gmail dot com
    7 years ago
    /*If tags in DOM have text and some part of this text is surrounded by other tag, simple_import_dom object doesn't contain position of child tag, so rendering it back to html/xml can be a problem. Printing such a node is also peculiar. Eg.*/

    //////////////////////
    $text = "<body><p>Some text before <em>italic </em>and after text.</p></body>";
    $dom = new DOMDocument;
    $dom->loadHTML($text);
    $result = simplexml_import_dom($dom);
    echo $result->p;

    //////////////////////
    //Prints :
    //Some text before and after text.

    print_r($result->p);
    //Prints:
    //SimpleXMLElement Object ( [em] => italic )

    print_r($result->p->em)
    //does more or less the same:
    //SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => italic )

    var_dump($result->p);
    //Prints:
    //object(SimpleXMLElement)#8 (1) { ["em"]=> string(7) "italic " }

    var_dump($result->p->em)
    //object(SimpleXMLElement)#9 (1) { [0]=> string(7) "italic " }

    //but
    echo $result->p->em;
    //prints:
    //italic
    up
    -3
    brandonkirsch at perceptionilluminates dot com
    11 years ago
    simplexml_import_dom() will accept DOMNodes or other SimpleXMLElements. This has a useful purpose if you are extending the SimpleXMLElement class and would prefer the xpath() method to return your class extension instead of basic SimpleXMLElements. For example:

    class MySimpleXML extends SimpleXMLElement{
    public function xpath($xpath){
    $return = array();
    $simpleXmls = parent::xpath($xpath); // run SimpleXMLElement xpath, returning an array of SimpleXMLElements
    foreach($simpleXmls as $xml){
    $return[] = simplexml_import_dom($xml,'MySimpleXML'); // copy SimpleXMLElement, returning as MySimpleXML instance
    }
    return $return;
    }
    }

    Now I can create an instance of MySimpleXML, run an xpath, and get my results back as an array of MySimpleXML elements instead of the native SimpleXMLElement:

    $mySimpleXml = new mySimpleXml('<root><node/></root>');

    $array = $mySimpleXml->xpath('/root/node'); // returns array with a single MySimpleXml object
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