Tutorials References Menu

PHP Tutorial

PHP HOME PHP Intro PHP Install PHP Syntax PHP Comments PHP Variables PHP Echo / Print PHP Data Types PHP Strings PHP Numbers PHP Math PHP Constants PHP Operators PHP If...Else...Elseif PHP Switch PHP Loops PHP Functions PHP Arrays PHP Superglobals PHP RegEx

PHP Forms

PHP Form Handling PHP Form Validation PHP Form Required PHP Form URL/E-mail PHP Form Complete

PHP Advanced

PHP Date and Time PHP Include PHP File Handling PHP File Open/Read PHP File Create/Write PHP File Upload PHP Cookies PHP Sessions PHP Filters PHP Filters Advanced PHP Callback Functions PHP JSON PHP Exceptions

PHP OOP

PHP What is OOP PHP Classes/Objects PHP Constructor PHP Destructor PHP Access Modifiers PHP Inheritance PHP Constants PHP Abstract Classes PHP Interfaces PHP Traits PHP Static Methods PHP Static Properties PHP Namespaces PHP Iterables

MySQL Database

MySQL Database MySQL Connect MySQL Create DB MySQL Create Table MySQL Insert Data MySQL Get Last ID MySQL Insert Multiple MySQL Prepared MySQL Select Data MySQL Where MySQL Order By MySQL Delete Data MySQL Update Data MySQL Limit Data

PHP XML

PHP XML Parsers PHP SimpleXML Parser PHP SimpleXML - Get PHP XML Expat PHP XML DOM

PHP - AJAX

AJAX Intro AJAX PHP AJAX Database AJAX XML AJAX Live Search AJAX Poll

PHP Examples

PHP Examples PHP Compiler

PHP Reference

PHP Overview PHP Array PHP Calendar PHP Date PHP Directory PHP Error PHP Exception PHP Filesystem PHP Filter PHP FTP PHP JSON PHP Keywords PHP Libxml PHP Mail PHP Math PHP Misc PHP MySQLi PHP Network PHP Output Control PHP RegEx PHP SimpleXML PHP Stream PHP String PHP Variable Handling PHP XML Parser PHP Zip PHP Timezones

PHP simplexml_load_file() Function

❮ PHP SimpleXML Reference

Example

Convert an XML file into an object, then output keys and elements of the object:

<?php
$xml=simplexml_load_file("note.xml");
print_r($xml);
?>
Run Example »

Definition and Usage

The simplexml_load_file() function converts an XML document to an object.


Syntax

simplexml_load_file(file, class, options, ns, is_prefix)

Parameter Values

Parameter Description
file Required. Specifies the path to the XML file
class 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: A SimpleXMLElement object on success. FALSE on failure
PHP Version: 5+

More Examples

Assume we have the following XML file, "note.xml":

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

Example

Output the data from each element in the XML file:

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

Example

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

<?php
$xml=simplexml_load_file("note.xml");
echo $xml->getName() . "<br>";

foreach($xml->children() as $child)
  {
  echo $child->getName() . ": " . $child . "<br>";
  }
?>
Run Example »

❮ PHP SimpleXML Reference