Get values from SimpleXMLElement Object for php array - php

Question

I need help with this issue, it seems I can't get targetCurrency out of the SimpleXMLElement Object
$xmlString = <<<XML
<channel>
<title>XML ~~ Exchange Rates ~~</title>
<language>en</language>
<item>
<baseCurrency>USD</baseCurrency>
<targetCurrency>EUR</targetCurrency>
<targetName>Euro</targetName>
<exchangeRate>0.90900497</exchangeRate>
</item>
</channel>
XML;
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlString);
foreach($xml->item as $rate){
$rate = (string) $rate->exchangeRate;
$curr_code = (string) $rate->targetCurrency;
$money[] = array('rate' => $rate, 'curr_code' => $curr_code);
}
print_r($money);
This outputs:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[rate] => 0.90947603
[curr_code] =>
)
)
[curr_code] should output 'EUR'.
How can I fix it?

Answer 1

You are using the same variable name for two different things:
foreach($xml->item as $rate){
// at this point, $rate is the <item> element
$rate = (string) $rate->exchangeRate;
// now $rate is a string with the exchange rate
$curr_code = (string) $rate->targetCurrency;
// so now this won't work
$money[] = array('rate' => $rate, 'curr_code' => $curr_code);
}
If you were running with display_errors switched on or checking your logs, you would have seen a message like this:
Notice: Trying to get property 'targetCurrency' of non-object
Or in PHP 8, this:
Warning: Attempt to read property "targetCurrency" on string
The fix is simply to name your variables more carefully:
foreach($xml->item as $itemElement){
$rate = (string) $itemElement->exchangeRate;
$curr_code = (string) $itemElement->targetCurrency;
$money[] = array('rate' => $rate, 'curr_code' => $curr_code);
}

Answer 2

Try it using xpath instead:
$items = $xml->xpath("//item");
foreach($items as $item){
$rate = $item->xpath('.//exchangeRate')[0];
$curr_code = $item->xpath('.//targetCurrency')[0];
$money[] = array('rate' => $rate, 'curr_code' => $curr_code);
}
print_r($money);
The output should be as exptected.