How to convert array to SimpleXML

Question

How can I convert an array to a SimpleXML object in PHP?

Answer 1

Here is php 5.2 code which will convert array of any depth to xml document:

Array
(
    ['total_stud']=> 500
    [0] => Array
        (
            [student] => Array
                (
                    [id] => 1
                    [name] => abc
                    [address] => Array
                        (
                            [city]=>Pune
                            [zip]=>411006
                        )                       
                )
        )
    [1] => Array
        (
            [student] => Array
                (
                    [id] => 2
                    [name] => xyz
                    [address] => Array
                        (
                            [city]=>Mumbai
                            [zip]=>400906
                        )   
                )

        )
)

generated XML would be as:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<student_info>
    <total_stud>500</total_stud>
    <student>
        <id>1</id>
        <name>abc</name>
        <address>
            <city>Pune</city>
            <zip>411006</zip>
        </address>
    </student>
    <student>
        <id>1</id>
        <name>abc</name>
        <address>
            <city>Mumbai</city>
            <zip>400906</zip>
        </address>
    </student>
</student_info>

PHP snippet

<?php
// function defination to convert array to xml
function array_to_xml( $data, &$xml_data ) {
    foreach( $data as $key => $value ) {
        if( is_numeric($key) ){
            $key = 'item'.$key; //dealing with <0/>..<n/> issues
        }
        if( is_array($value) ) {
            $subnode = $xml_data->addChild($key);
            array_to_xml($value, $subnode);
        } else {
            $xml_data->addChild("$key",htmlspecialchars("$value"));
        }
     }
}

// initializing or creating array
$data = array('total_stud' => 500);

// creating object of SimpleXMLElement
$xml_data = new SimpleXMLElement('<?xml version="1.0"?><data></data>');

// function call to convert array to xml
array_to_xml($data,$xml_data);

//saving generated xml file; 
$result = $xml_data->asXML('/file/path/name.xml');

?>

Documentation on SimpleXMLElement::asXML used in this snippet

Answer 2

Here is my entry, simple and clean..

function array2xml($array, $xml = false){
    if($xml === false){
        $xml = new SimpleXMLElement('<root/>');
    }
    foreach($array as $key => $value){
        if(is_array($value)){
            array2xml($value, $xml->addChild($key));
        }else{
            $xml->addChild($key, $value);
        }
    }
    return $xml->asXML();
}


header('Content-type: text/xml');
print array2xml($array);

Answer 3

a short one:

<?php

$test_array = array (
  'bla' => 'blub',
  'foo' => 'bar',
  'another_array' => array (
    'stack' => 'overflow',
  ),
);
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement('<root/>');
array_walk_recursive($test_array, array ($xml, 'addChild'));
print $xml->asXML();

results in

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <blub>bla</blub>
  <bar>foo</bar>
  <overflow>stack</overflow>
</root>

keys and values are swapped - you could fix that with array_flip() before the array_walk. array_walk_recursive requires PHP 5. you could use array_walk instead, but you won't get 'stack' => 'overflow' in the xml then.

Answer 4

function toXML($data, $obj = false, $dom) {
    $is_first_level = false;
    if($obj === false) {
        $dom = new DomDocument('1.0');
        $obj = $dom;
        $is_first_level = true;
    }

    if(is_array($data)) {
        foreach($data as $key => $item) {
            $this->toXML($item, $obj->appendChild($dom->createElement($key)), $dom);
        }
    }else {
        $obj->appendChild($dom->createTextNode($data));
    }

    if($is_first_level) {
        $obj->formatOutput = true;
        return $obj->saveXML();
    }
    return $obj;
}

Answer 5

From PHP 5.4

function array2xml($data, $root = null){
    $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($root ? '<' . $root . '/>' : '<root/>');
    array_walk_recursive($data, function($value, $key)use($xml){
        $xml->addChild($key, $value);
    });
    return $xml->asXML();
}

Answer 6

function array2xml($array, $xml = false){

    if($xml === false){

        $xml = new SimpleXMLElement('<?xml version=\'1.0\' encoding=\'utf-8\'?><'.key($array).'/>');
        $array = $array[key($array)];

    }
    foreach($array as $key => $value){
        if(is_array($value)){
            $this->array2xml($value, $xml->addChild($key));
        }else{
            $xml->addChild($key, $value);
        }
    }
    return $xml->asXML();
}