PHP find the node by value and remove it XML - php

Question

I have all properties listed in XML file with this structure
<property>
<details>
<object>25.5 m2 Flat in New York</object>
</details>
</property>
<property>
<details>
<object>95.6 m2 House in New Jersey</object>
</details>
</property>
Now I want to use PHP to find the node with a specific <object> value and to remove the parent node (<property>). How can I do it?
I tried by doing the code below but I cannot manage to work.
$doc = new DOMDocument;
$doc->load('../openimmo/xml-import1.xml');
$thedocument = $doc->documentElement;
$list = $thedocument->getElementsByTagName('property');
$nodeToRemove = null;
foreach ($list as $domElement) {
$attrValue = $domElement->getElementsByTagName('object');
foreach ($attrValue as $item) {
if ($item->nodeValue == $_GET['delete']) {
$nodeToRemove = $domElement;
}
}
}
if ($nodeToRemove != null)
$thedocument->removeChild($nodeToRemove);
echo $doc->saveXML();

Answer 1

You can use Xpath expressions to fetch nodes. This allows you to use conditions.
$document = new DOMDocument;
//$document->load('../openimmo/xml-import1.xml');
$document->loadXML($xml);
$xpath = new DOMXpath($document);
$objectText = '25.5 m2 Flat in New York';
$properties = $xpath->evaluate('//property[details/object = "'.$objectText.'"]');
foreach ($properties as $property) {
// remove the node (PHP 8)
$property->remove();
}
echo $document->saveXML();
The other difference is that the result of DOMXpath::evaluate() is not live. Unlike the result from DOMNode::getElementsByTagName() it does not change if the DOM changes.
PHP 8 adds DOM Living Standard methods. In PHP 7 you would have to use $property->parentNode->removeChild($property).